Thoughts and Ideas: April 2020

Thursday, April 30, 2020

Amazon Earnings: Sales Are Up, but Company Warns of Higher Costs Ahead

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/30/technology/amazon-stock-earnings-report.html
May 01, 2020 at 01:50AM

Jeff Bezos, the chief executive, said the company could spend up to $4 billion to handle the effects of Covid-19.

Amazon Sells More, but Warns of Much Higher Costs Ahead

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/30/technology/amazon-profit.html
May 01, 2020 at 01:50AM

Jeff Bezos, the chief executive, said the company could spend up to $4 billion to handle the effects of Covid-19.

Apple’s First-Quarter Sales Are Up Despite Coronavirus Slowdown

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/30/technology/apple-sales-earnings-coronavirus.html
May 01, 2020 at 01:35AM

The tech giant signaled confidence by announcing another big stock buyback, but it declined to forecast sales for the current quarter.

Seeking Real Voices in China, Despite Censorship and Fear

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/29/insider/china-reporter-expelled.html
April 29, 2020 at 09:10AM

Subjects get nervous. Interviews can end quickly. Still, one Times reporter found people who were eager to talk, at least before he was expelled.

Alphabet’s Profit Is Up, but Company Warns of Difficulties

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/28/technology/alphabet-google-earnings-coronavirus.html
April 29, 2020 at 01:08AM

The chief executive of Google’s parent company said it experienced a “significant and sudden slowdown” in advertising in March.

Investors Bet Giant Companies Will Dominate After Crisis

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/28/business/coronavirus-stocks.html
April 29, 2020 at 12:14AM

The virus outbreak supercharged a continuing shift in the markets, with a few giant companies now exerting the most influence over the direction of stocks since the tech boom.

New York Attorney General Scrutinizes Amazon for Firing Warehouse Worker

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/27/technology/amazon-fired-worker-attorney-general-coronavirus.html
April 28, 2020 at 10:26PM

The attorney general said in a letter that Amazon may have violated laws in firing a Staten Island worker who led a protest against the company.

Facebook Restructures Its Security Teams

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/28/technology/facebook-security-restructure.html
April 28, 2020 at 10:10PM

The social network displaced more than two dozen employees who work on security, as the company fights threats such as cyberattacks.

Marc Benioff’s $25 Million Blitz to Buy Protective Gear From China

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/28/business/coronavirus-marc-benioff-salesforce.html
April 28, 2020 at 09:30PM

A call from a university chancellor set in motion a private-sector effort to procure 50 million masks, gowns and swabs for American medical facilities.

You Are Being Influenced

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/28/technology/digital-influencers-coronavirus.html
April 28, 2020 at 07:56PM

Digital influencers are shaping our habits, even now and even if we’re clueless about it.

Europe’s Privacy Law Hasn’t Shown Its Teeth, Frustrating Advocates

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/27/technology/GDPR-privacy-law-europe.html
April 28, 2020 at 04:47PM

Nearly two years in, there has been little enforcement of the General Data Protection Regulation, once seen as ushering in a new era.

Abortion by Telemedicine: A Growing Option as Access to Clinics Wanes

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/28/health/telabortion-abortion-telemedicine.html
April 28, 2020 at 09:59AM

The coronavirus has created a surge in demand for telemedicine of all types — including for a quietly expanding program for terminating pregnancies.

Newsroom: eMarketer: Americansâ€™ TV Time Will Grow for First Time Since 2012

Source: https://www.emarketer.com/newsroom/index.php/emarketer-americans-tv-time-will-grow-for-first-time-since-2012/
April 28, 2020 at 07:01AM

Pandemic gives TV viewership boost, but will be short-lived   April 28, 2020 (New York, NY) â€“ As stay-at-home orders remain in effect due to COVID-19, TV viewership and time […]

Vallejo Official's Removal Is Sought After He Throws Cat During Zoom Meeting

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/27/us/cat-throw-zoom-meeting-chris-platzer.html
April 28, 2020 at 02:33AM

“OK, first, I’d like to introduce my cat,” said a planning commissioner in Vallejo, Calif., lifting it close to the camera and then, with two hands, tossing it off screen.

Everyone Is Giving Away Cash on Instagram

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/27/style/instagram-cash-giveaways-coronavirus.html
April 28, 2020 at 02:02AM

As the coronavirus continues to disrupt lives and livelihoods, influencers are offering free money to followers — and gaining a lot more in return.

Start-Ups Pursue ‘Free Money’ With Relief Funds, Prompting Backlash

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/27/technology/startups-sba-loans-backlash.html
April 28, 2020 at 12:28AM

Some young companies have turned to the government loans not for day-to-day survival but simply to buy useful time.

No, the Best Doesn’t Win

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/27/technology/no-the-best-doesnt-win.html
April 27, 2020 at 08:00PM

“It just works” are some of the most powerful words in technology.

I Used to Make Fun of Silicon Valley Preppers. Then I Became One.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/24/technology/coronavirus-preppers.html
April 26, 2020 at 12:27AM

In tech circles, gearing up for the apocalypse was a cliché. Now it’s a credential.

Jailed Huawei Workers Raised a Forbidden Subject: Iran

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/25/technology/china-huawei-iran-arrests.html
April 25, 2020 at 04:25PM

China arrested five former employees who had discussed the tech giant’s Iranian sales in a chat group, raising questions about its government ties.

AT&T Names John Stankey C.E.O. as Randall Stephenson Plans to Retire

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/24/business/media/att-ceo-john-stankey-randall-stephenson.html
April 24, 2020 at 11:32PM

The longtime telecommunications executive, who led the company’s move into the entertainment industry, will take the top job July 1.

What to Do When Your Uncle Believes Coronavirus Conspiracies

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/23/technology/coronavirus-conspiracy-theories.html
April 24, 2020 at 10:29PM

Believing in online hoaxes can be dangerous now. Here’s how we can all help.

Amazon Loses Appeal of French Order to Stop Selling Nonessential Items

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/24/business/amazon-france-unions-coronavirus.html
April 24, 2020 at 10:28PM

The ruling is another court victory by French unions against Amazon in a battle over workplace safety.

Zoom’s Biggest Rivals Are Coming for It

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/24/technology/zoom-rivals-virus-facebook-google.html
April 24, 2020 at 10:18PM

Facebook, Google and other behemoths are training their sights on Silicon Valley’s company of the moment.

Our Ingenuity Shapes Facebook

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/24/technology/our-ingenuity-shapes-facebook.html
April 24, 2020 at 07:58PM

We mortals are showing one of the internet era’s mightiest companies how it should evolve.

Newsroom: Time Spent with Media in China Grows amid COVID-19 Pandemic

Source: https://www.emarketer.com/newsroom/index.php/time-spent-with-media-in-china-grows-amid-covid-19-pandemic/
April 24, 2020 at 07:01AM

Our Estimate for Time Spent with TV in 2020 Is Revised Upward by 5 Minutes April 24, 2020 (New York, NY) â€“ Over the course of just a few months, […]

Wednesday, April 29, 2020

Facebook Points to ‘Signs of Stability’ as Ad Declines Flatten

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/29/technology/facebook-earnings-advertising-virus.html
April 30, 2020 at 01:08AM

The company reported rising revenue and profit in the first quarter and said it was also saving on expenses.

Technology Will Not Save Us

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/29/technology/coronavirus-contact-tracing-technology.html
April 29, 2020 at 07:43PM

To fight the pandemic, we need to focus more on unglamorous, human-powered tactics.

A Scramble for Virus Apps That Do No Harm

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/29/business/coronavirus-cellphone-apps-contact-tracing.html
April 29, 2020 at 05:32PM

Dozens of tracking apps for smartphones are being used or developed to help contain the coronavirus pandemic. But there are worries about privacy and hastily written software.

New York Attorney General Scrutinizes Amazon for Firing Warehouse Worker

Facebook Restructures Its Security Teams

Marc Benioff’s $25 Million Blitz to Buy Protective Gear From China

Create Your Own Digital Comics Whether You Can Draw or Not

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/29/technology/personaltech/create-your-own-digital-comics-whether-you-can-draw-or-not.html
April 29, 2020 at 12:00PM

Even if you can’t draw a stick person, you can still express yourself and tell stories through the time-honored tradition of sequential art.

Newsroom: Time Spent with Media in China Grows amid COVID-19 Pandemic

Newsroom: COVID-19 Boosts UK Time Spent with Media

Source: https://www.emarketer.com/newsroom/index.php/covid-19-boosts-uk-time-spent-with-media/
April 23, 2020 at 07:01AM

TV time among adult viewers up 10 minutes per day in 2020 April 23, 2020 (London, UK) â€“ The UKâ€™s social distancing measures due to coronavirus are having a measurable […]

Their Met Gala, Their Way. You’re Invited.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/29/fashion/coronavirus-met-gala-twitter.html
April 29, 2020 at 12:00PM

A group of internet kids are about to hold the biggest fashion party of the year.

Newsroom: Time Spent with Media in China Grows amid COVID-19 Pandemic

Newsroom: COVID-19 Boosts UK Time Spent with Media

Seeking Real Voices in China, Despite Censorship and Fear

Tuesday, April 28, 2020

Alphabet’s Profit Is Up, but Company Warns of Difficulties

Newsroom: Time Spent with Media in China Grows amid COVID-19 Pandemic

Newsroom: COVID-19 Boosts UK Time Spent with Media

VDI as a Service is better than VDI

Source: https://gigaom.com/2020/04/28/vdi-as-a-service-is-better-than-vdi/
April 28, 2020 at 08:43PM

Last week, I attended Cloud Field Day 7 and some sessions with VMware, they spoke about the service and product ecosystem they are building on top of VMware on AWS, such as VDI and DRaaS.

These are not fully managed services but I think there is some value in what they are doing, and wanted to collect a few thoughts about VDI here in this post (soon to be followed by DraaS). Now, this is not a post about VMware, but more generally about some considerations about COVID-19 and other events that are impacting IT strategies. In the following days, I will also talk about DRaaS and we have several podcasts coming out on this topic (the first episode of Voices on Innovation for example).

Is This the Year of VDI?

“This is the year of VDI” is one of the common jokes that you hear at the beginning of every new year. Unfortunately, it has never been the year of VDI and it probably never will be. VDI is and will remain a niche for several reasons, including costs, but also because many of its theoretical advantages can be easily obtained with other technologies, many users don’t really need a traditional desktop anymore. How many of you are actually working with a laptop instead of a traditional desktop? And how many workflows include mobile device interactions as part of the process? The common trend is to grant access to data from anywhere and any device (at any time) and, following this paradigm, VDI doesn’t help at all while other approaches can even improve productivity and flexibility.

Jon Collins wrote an article about the debate around VDI not long ago, and opinions among GigaOm’s analysts are very different in this regard, but it is clear that VDI is still a niche. During CFD7, VMware told us that their solution (Horizon) has been deployed for several use cases for a total of 11M virtual PCs under management, roughly counting for half of the market. This means that the total market can be in a range between 22 and 25Millions VDI instances. If you consider that the total amount of PCs shipped in the world last year was more than 261M you have an idea of what we are talking about here.

Is This the Year of VDI-aaS?

I think VDIaaS (or Desktop-aaS?) is a totally different story. Well, not that it will change things much in terms of total numbers, but cloud adds the necessary flexibility to make VDI more appealing in a lot of use cases. Think about the COVID19 crisis, you need to move hundreds or thousands of employees quickly from the office to their homes, give them access to a secure computer and let them operate as seamlessly as possible. VDI is not a bad option and one that helps you to keep perimeter security tight, even if the user logs in from a computer that is usually in the hands of their kids! You just extend your network to the cloud, spin up the virtual desktops you need, for the time you need them, and that’s it.

Sure, it is expensive, but risking the introduction of any sort of security threat you can think of can be much more expensive than that.

Approaches to VDI on the Cloud

Fundamentally there are two approaches to VDI on the cloud. One is a fully managed service, while the other is building your own VDI infrastructure with the licenses and resources available from your cloud provider of choices.

The first, VDIaaS, is the easiest way to go about it. It is optimal for any greenfield deployment and in cases where you don’t really need a very particular configuration that is not possible with the provider provided tools. All major providers have options in this regard and, at first sight, they are very comparable in terms of features and prices. Local and specialized providers can do even better and offer tailored services that can satisfy more demanding needs as well as specific industry regulations.

The second option is DIY (Do it Yourself). The advantage, like in the case of VMware, is that you keep full control of your infrastructure using familiar tools (like Horizon) and a trusted environment (VMware Cloud on AWS). As was demonstrated during the session, you can also expand your on-premises VDI infrastructure with the cloud, in this case, apply the same policies and reuse all of the work previously done. This also simplifies the deployment and onboarding processes for the users too.

I’m not sure which one of these will be more expensive in the end. The first will have a better TCA, while the second will be better in terms of TCO, especially for very large organizations with thousands of VDI under management in the cloud and on-premises.

Closing the Circle

VDIaaS can really simplify the life of an IT organization in a time of crisis. You can quickly re-modulate and reposition your PC fleet following business indications quickly. On the other hand, this is nothing that you can’t achieve with laptops, good VPN, management tools, and common sense. VDI fans will argue than VDI is much more but, again, if we are still debating this after so many years, it is clear that most of the promised benefits are not that visible in the real life.

There are several other niche use cases for which VDIaaS is more beneficial than traditional VDI. But, we are talking about benefits seen at the core and not at the edge where most VDI deployments are made with PC. And the PC-in-a-PC concept is something that doesn’t make a lot of sense to begin with!

Last but not least, it is clear I’m not a fan of VDI, but I find VDIaaS much more interesting than traditional VDI. Less expensive to start, less expensive over time, less expensive if it is not for you and want to get rid of it. All of this while giving you more flexibility than traditional VDI.

You Are Being Influenced

Facebook Restructures Its Security Teams

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/28/technology/facebook-security-restructure.html
April 28, 2020 at 07:47PM

The social network displaced more than two dozen employees who work on security, as the company fights threats such as foreign meddling.

Investors Bet Giant Companies Will Dominate After Crisis

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/28/business/coronavirus-stocks.html
April 28, 2020 at 06:55PM

The virus outbreak supercharged a continuing shift in the markets, with a few giant companies now exerting the most influence over the direction of stocks since the tech boom.

Marc Benioff’s $25 Million Blitz to Buy Protective Gear From China

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/28/business/coronavirus-marc-benioff-salesforce.html
April 28, 2020 at 10:08AM

A call from a university chancellor set in motion a private sector effort to procure 50 million masks, gowns and swabs for American medical facilities.

Abortion by Telemedicine: A Growing Option as Access to Clinics Wanes

Monday, April 27, 2020

New York Attorney General Scrutinizes Amazon for Firing Warehouse Worker

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/27/technology/amazon-fired-worker-attorney-general-coronavirus.html
April 28, 2020 at 05:07AM

The attorney general said in a letter that Amazon may have violated laws in firing a Staten Island worker who led a protest against the company.

Everyone Is Giving Away Cash on Instagram

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/27/style/instagram-cash-giveaways-coronavirus.html
April 28, 2020 at 12:21AM

As the coronavirus continues to disrupt lives and livelihoods, influencers are offering free money to followers — and gaining a lot more in return.

Vallejo Official's Removal Is Sought After He Throws Cat During Zoom Meeting

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/27/us/cat-throw-zoom-meeting-chris-platzer.html
April 27, 2020 at 10:38PM

“OK, first, I’d like to introduce my cat,” said a planning commissioner in Vallejo, Calif., lifting it close to the camera and then, with two hands, tossing it off screen.

An Official’s Removal Is Sought After He Throws Cat During Zoom Meeting

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/27/us/cat-zoom-meeting.html
April 27, 2020 at 10:38PM

“OK, first, I’d like to introduce my cat,” said a planning commissioner in Vallejo, Calif., lifting it close to the camera and then, with two hands, tossing it off screen.

No, the Best Doesn’t Win

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/27/technology/no-the-best-doesnt-win.html
April 27, 2020 at 08:00PM

“It just works” are some of the most powerful words in technology.

Europe’s Privacy Law Hasn’t Shown Its Teeth, Frustrating Advocates

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/27/technology/GDPR-privacy-law-europe.html
April 27, 2020 at 12:59PM

Nearly two years in, there has been little enforcement of the General Data Protection Regulation, once seen as ushering in a new era.

Start-Ups Pursue ‘Free Money’ With Relief Funds, Prompting Backlash

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/27/technology/startups-sba-loans-backlash.html
April 27, 2020 at 12:00PM

Some young companies have turned to the government loans not for day-to-day survival but simply to buy useful time.

Sunday, April 26, 2020

Jailed Huawei Workers Raised a Forbidden Subject: Iran

‘Pure Hell for Victims’ as Stimulus Programs Draw a Flood of Scammers

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/22/technology/stimulus-checks-hackers-coronavirus.html
April 25, 2020 at 01:00AM

Trillions of dollars in stimulus funds have created a rush among criminals to take the money from those who need it the most.

AT&T Names John Stankey C.E.O. as Randall Stephenson Plans to Retire

What to Do When Your Uncle Believes Coronavirus Conspiracies

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/23/technology/coronavirus-conspiracy-theories.html
April 24, 2020 at 10:29PM

Believing in online hoaxes can be dangerous now. Here’s how we can all help.

Amazon Loses Appeal of French Order to Stop Selling Nonessential Items

Influencing? In This Economy? It’s Only Gotten More Competitive

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/23/style/creator-coach-influencers-coronavirus.html
April 23, 2020 at 06:51PM

Josh Zimmerman is a life coach for creators, whose careers have become ever more consuming, uncertain and subject to scrutiny under coronavirus.

The Social Media Challenges Helping Keep Boredom at Bay

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/22/style/challenges-social-media-coronavirus.html
April 22, 2020 at 11:29PM

From bouncing Ping-Pong balls off pots and pans for the perfect #TrickShot to turning pillows into D.I.Y. dresses, here’s how people are staving off cabin fever while in lockdown.

Facebook Invests $5.7 Billion in Indian Internet Giant Jio

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/21/technology/facebook-jio-india.html
April 22, 2020 at 09:27PM

It was the largest bet by the social network on the developing market, where millions of people have gone online in recent years.

Reliable Amazon Isn’t Anymore

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/22/technology/coronavirus-amazon-shopping.html
April 22, 2020 at 08:12PM

Amazon no longer gets us everything we need and quickly. Will this affect our shopping habits for good?

With ‘Upload,’ Greg Daniels Takes a Leap Into the Great Unknown

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/22/arts/television/upload-amazon.html
April 22, 2020 at 07:27PM

Recognized for the hit network sitcoms “The Office” and “Parks and Recreation,” Daniels is breaking his own conventions with a satirical sci-fi show on Amazon.

NY Needed Ventilators for Coronavirus. They Developed One in a Month.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/20/technology/new-york-ventilators-coronavirus.html
April 22, 2020 at 06:06PM

The pandemic inspired an innovative project to design and make a low-cost ventilator in weeks, not years.

Netflix Earnings: Nearly 16 Million New Subscribers Join So Far in 2020

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/21/business/media/netflix-q1-2020-earnings-nflx.html
April 22, 2020 at 04:56AM

The streaming giant added nearly 16 million new subscribers in the first three months of the year.

Spectrum Employees Are Getting Sick Amid Debate Over Working From Home

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/21/business/spectrum-employees-coronavirus.html
April 21, 2020 at 09:15PM

More than 230 workers at Charter Communications, the cable and internet giant known as Spectrum, have tested positive for Covid-19, as employees question how many of them must work in the office.

This Pandemic Exposes the Downsides of Cheap Uber Rides

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/21/technology/coronavirus-uber-workers.html
April 21, 2020 at 07:30PM

An economic and health crisis is exposing how vulnerable Uber workers really are.

Australia’s Fire Season Ends, and Researchers Look to the Next One

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/21/science/australia-wildfires-technology-drones.html
April 21, 2020 at 09:30AM

With its otherworldly conditions, Australia has become a testing ground for fire-prediction technology.

Take YouTube’s Dangers Seriously

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/20/technology/youtube-conspiracy-theories.html
April 20, 2020 at 10:51PM

The website’s features can lead people unwittingly to scary places.

Zoom’s Security Woes Were No Secret to Business Partners Like Dropbox

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/20/technology/zoom-security-dropbox-hackers.html
April 20, 2020 at 09:31PM

Dropbox privately paid top hackers to find bugs in software by the videoconferencing company Zoom, then pressed it to fix them.

Saturday, April 25, 2020

Jailed Huawei Workers Raised a Forbidden Subject: Iran

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/25/technology/china-huawei-iran-arrests.html
April 25, 2020 at 10:05AM

China arrested five former employees who had discussed the tech giant’s Iranian sales in a chat group, raising questions about its government ties.

Friday, April 24, 2020

Amazon Loses Appeal of French Order to Stop Selling Nonessential Items

I Used to Make Fun of Silicon Valley Preppers. Then I Became One.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/24/technology/coronavirus-preppers.html
April 24, 2020 at 09:48PM

In tech circles, gearing up for the apocalypse was a cliché. Now it’s a credential.

Zoom’s Biggest Rivals Are Coming for It

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/24/technology/zoom-rivals-virus-facebook-google.html
April 24, 2020 at 09:15PM

Facebook, Google and other behemoths are training their sights on Silicon Valley’s company of the moment.

AT&T Names John Stankey C.E.O. as Randall Stephenson Plans to Retire

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/24/business/media/att-ceo-john-stankey-randall-stephenson.html
April 24, 2020 at 09:10PM

The longtime telecommunications executive, who led the company’s move into the entertainment industry, will take the top job July 1.

Our Ingenuity Shapes Facebook

What to Do When Mom Believes Coronavirus Conspiracies

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/23/technology/coronavirus-conspiracy-theories.html
April 23, 2020 at 07:46PM

Believing in online hoaxes can be dangerous now. Here’s how we can all help.

Influencing? In This Economy? It’s Only Gotten More Competitive

Bezos Takes Back the Wheel at Amazon

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/22/technology/bezos-amazon-coronavirus.html
April 23, 2020 at 03:07AM

The chief executive, who had distanced himself from day-to-day management, is closely involved in the company’s response to the pandemic.

The Social Media Challenges Helping Keep Boredom at Bay

‘Pure Hell for Victims’ as Stimulus Programs Draw a Flood of Scammers

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/22/technology/stimulus-checks-hackers-coronavirus.html
April 22, 2020 at 09:58PM

Trillions of dollars in stimulus funds have created a rush among criminals to take the money from those who need it the most.

Facebook Invests $5.7 Billion in Indian Internet Giant Jio

Reliable Amazon Isn’t Anymore

With ‘Upload,’ Greg Daniels Takes a Leap Into the Great Unknown

NY Needed Ventilators for Coronavirus. They Developed One in a Month.

Netflix Earnings: Nearly 16 Million New Subscribers Join So Far in 2020

Spectrum Employees Are Getting Sick Amid Debate Over Working From Home

This Pandemic Exposes the Downsides of Cheap Uber Rides

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/21/technology/coronavirus-uber-workers.html
April 21, 2020 at 07:30PM

An economic and health crisis is exposing how vulnerable Uber workers really are.

Australia’s Fire Season Ends, and Researchers Look to the Next One

Take YouTube’s Dangers Seriously

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/20/technology/youtube-conspiracy-theories.html
April 20, 2020 at 10:51PM

The website’s features can lead people unwittingly to scary places.

Zoom’s Security Woes Were No Secret to Business Partners Like Dropbox

As Amazon Rises, So Does the Opposition

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/18/technology/athena-mitchell-amazon.html
April 18, 2020 at 12:00PM

Stacy Mitchell knew that taking on a trillion-dollar company would be a lopsided fight. But the pandemic has not only made Amazon more essential. It has also made it vulnerable.

Preppers Are Quite Prepared to Enjoy Some Vindication

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/24/technology/coronavirus-preppers.html
April 24, 2020 at 04:33PM

In Silicon Valley, gearing up for the apocalypse was a cliché. Now it’s a credential.

Preppers Are Quite Prepared to Enjoy Some Vindication

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/24/technology/coronavirus-preppers.html
April 24, 2020 at 04:33PM

In Silicon Valley, gearing up for the apocalypse was a cliché. Now it’s a credential.

Thursday, April 23, 2020

Google Will Require Proof of Identity From All Advertisers

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/23/business/media/google-advertising.html
April 23, 2020 at 09:59PM

A slew of scams and misleading ads pushed the search giant to expand its verification policy.

What to Do When Mom Believes Coronavirus Conspiracies

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/23/technology/coronavirus-conspiracy-theories.html
April 23, 2020 at 07:46PM

Believing in online hoaxes can be dangerous now. Here’s how we can all help.

Influencing? In This Economy? It’s Only Gotten More Competitive

Wednesday, April 22, 2020

Bezos Takes Back the Wheel at Amazon

The Social Media Challenges Helping Keep Boredom at Bay

Reliable Amazon Isn’t Anymore

‘Pure Hell for Victims’ as Stimulus Programs Draw a Flood of Scammers

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/22/technology/stimulus-checks-hackers-coronavirus.html
April 22, 2020 at 07:32PM

Trillions of dollars in stimulus funds have created a rush among criminals to take the money from those who need it the most.

With ‘Upload,’ Greg Daniels Takes a Leap Into the Great Unknown

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/22/arts/television/upload-amazon.html
April 22, 2020 at 07:08PM

Recognized for the hit network sitcoms “The Office” and “Parks and Recreation,” Daniels is breaking his own conventions with a satirical sci-fi show on Amazon.

Tuesday, April 21, 2020

Facebook Invests $5.7 Billion in India Internet Giant Jio

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/21/technology/facebook-jio-india.html
April 22, 2020 at 05:20AM

It was the largest bet by the social network on the developing market, where millions of people have gone online in recent years.

Netflix Earnings: Nearly 16 Million New Subscribers Join So Far in 2020

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/21/business/media/netflix-q1-2020-earnings-nflx.html
April 22, 2020 at 12:34AM

The streaming giant added nearly 16 million new subscribers in the first three months of the year.

This Pandemic Exposes the Downsides of Cheap Uber Rides

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/21/technology/coronavirus-uber-workers.html
April 21, 2020 at 07:30PM

An economic and health crisis is exposing how vulnerable Uber workers really are.

Spectrum Employees Are Getting Sick Amid Debate Over Working From Home

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/21/business/spectrum-employees-coronavirus.html
April 21, 2020 at 05:21PM

More than 230 workers at Charter Communications, the cable and internet giant known as Spectrum, have tested positive for Covid-19, as employees question how many of them must work in the office.

Why Apple’s iPad Is the Gadget of the Pandemic

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/21/technology/personaltech/apple-ipad-gadget-pandemic.html
April 21, 2020 at 12:00PM

Shelter-in-place orders have transformed the tablet computer from a superfluous device into a must-have.

Australia’s Fire Season Ends, and Researchers Look to the Next One

Monday, April 20, 2020

NY Needed Ventilators for Coronavirus. They Developed One in a Month.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/20/technology/new-york-ventilators-coronavirus.html
April 20, 2020 at 09:16PM

The pandemic inspired an innovative project to design and make a low-cost ventilator in weeks, not years.

Take YouTube’s Dangers Seriously

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/20/technology/youtube-conspiracy-theories.html
April 20, 2020 at 08:00PM

The website’s features can lead people unwittingly to scary places.

Facebook to Introduce an App for Gaming

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/19/technology/facebook-app-gaming.html
April 19, 2020 at 07:03PM

Video games are surging in popularity in the pandemic. So Facebook is rolling out an app designed for creating and watching live gameplay.

Zoom’s Security Woes Were No Secret to Business Partners Like Dropbox

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/20/technology/zoom-security-dropbox-hackers.html
April 20, 2020 at 12:00PM

Dropbox privately paid top hackers to find bugs in Zoom’s software and then pressed the videoconferencing company to fix them.

Saturday, April 18, 2020

As Amazon Rises, So Does the Opposition

Friday, April 17, 2020

How a 5G Coronavirus Conspiracy Theory Fueled Arson and Harassment in Britain

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/10/technology/coronavirus-5g-uk.html
April 12, 2020 at 04:25AM

A conspiracy theory linking the spread of the coronavirus to 5G wireless technology has spurred more than 100 incidents this month, British officials said.

Inside the Strip Clubs of Instagram

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/10/style/justin-laboy-instagram-strip-clubs-live.html
April 11, 2020 at 07:17PM

Going digital may be better for dancers.

Can Our Phones Stop a Pandemic?

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/10/technology/coronavirus-smartphones-surveillance.html
April 10, 2020 at 08:09PM

Some countries are using location data from smartphones to fight the pandemic. Should the United States?

The Difference Between Copyrights, Trademarks and Patents

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/article/copyrights-trademarks-patents.html
April 16, 2020 at 11:30PM

Whether you’re an inventor, a writer or an artist, you need to know what these each mean — and which you need to protect your work.

John Horton Conway, a ‘Magical Genius’ in Math, Dies at 82

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/15/technology/john-horton-conway-dead-coronavirus.html
April 16, 2020 at 09:58PM

He made profound contributions to number theory, coding theory, probability theory, topology, algebra and more — and created games from it all. He died of the coronavirus.

Electric Cars and the Lack of Charging in Cities

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/16/business/electric-cars-cities-chargers.html
April 16, 2020 at 09:34PM

For city dwellers who would love an E.V., the biggest hurdle might be keeping it juiced up without a garage or other convenient charging stations.

Coronavirus Contact Tracing: Apple and Google Team Up to Enable Virus Tracking

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/10/technology/apple-google-coronavirus-contact-tracing.html
April 16, 2020 at 05:58PM

The technology giants said they would embed a feature in iPhones and Android devices to enable users to track infected people they’d come close to.

There’s No Place Like Home (Theater)

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/16/theater/immersive-home-virus.html
April 16, 2020 at 05:09PM

With real theaters closed, our critic unlocked handcuffs, tried to land a plane and accidentally scalded herself, all while attempting immersive performances from her Brooklyn apartment.

We’re Shopping a Ton Online. Let’s Be Conscientious About It

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/13/technology/coronavirus-ethical-shopping.html
April 16, 2020 at 04:40PM

How we shop during the pandemic could have big consequences.

Art Recreation Is the Only Good Instagram Challenge

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/16/style/art-recreation-challenge-coronavirus.html
April 16, 2020 at 04:00PM

Around the world, people are posing as famous portraits with toilet paper, bedsheets, drawn-on unibrows, and did we mention toilet paper?

The Soundtrack to an Electric Car

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/16/business/bmw-i4-hans-zimmer.html
April 16, 2020 at 01:00PM

The film composer Hans Zimmer is creating a sonic signature for BMW’s forthcoming electric i4 sedan.

When Court Moves Online, Do Dress Codes Still Matter?

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/15/us/coronavirus-lawyers-court-telecommute-dress-code.html
April 15, 2020 at 09:30PM

The legal profession is rooted in tradition, but social distancing is upending old norms. One judge in Broward County, Fla., asked lawyers to keep it professional during videoconferencing calls.

Coronavirus Tests Science’s Need for Speed Limits

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/14/science/coronavirus-disinformation.html
April 15, 2020 at 07:52PM

Preprint servers and peer-reviewed journals are seeing surging audiences, with many new readers not well versed in the limitations of the latest research findings.

Why the Apple iPhone SE Doesn't Matter

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/15/technology/iphone-se.html
April 15, 2020 at 07:46PM

New smartphones have become like refrigerators. They’re just not that exciting.

Even Google and Facebook May Face an Ad Slump

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/14/technology/coronavirus-google-facebook-advertising.html
April 14, 2020 at 09:46PM

Though ad sales at the two companies are expected to be down, they are likely to fare better than smaller peers and publishers.

‘We Can Do Better’: One Plan to Erase America’s Digital Divide

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/14/technology/coronavirus-digital-divide.html
April 14, 2020 at 07:46PM

Never has the necessity of the internet been so clear, nor has the cost to those who go without.

SoftBank’s Troubles Deepen With Warning of $16.7 Billion Writedown

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/13/technology/softbank-167-billion-writedown.html
April 14, 2020 at 01:14AM

The Japanese conglomerate, which bet big on tech start-ups with its $100 billion Vision Fund, also expects its first annual loss in 15 years.

How a 5G Coronavirus Conspiracy Theory Fueled Arson and Harassment in Britain

Inside the Strip Clubs of Instagram

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/10/style/justin-laboy-instagram-strip-clubs-live.html
April 11, 2020 at 07:17PM

Going digital may be better for dancers.

Can Our Phones Stop a Pandemic?

Robots Welcome to Take Over, as Pandemic Accelerates Automation

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/10/business/coronavirus-workplace-automation.html
April 10, 2020 at 12:00PM

Broad unease about losing jobs to machines could dissipate as people focus on the benefits of minimizing close human contact.

Thursday, April 16, 2020

The Difference Between Copyrights, Trademarks and Patents

Coronavirus Contact Tracing: Apple and Google Team Up to Enable Virus Tracking

Welcome to the ‘Rabbit Hole’

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/16/technology/rabbit-hole-podcast-kevin-roose.html
April 16, 2020 at 11:24PM

Introducing an audio series about how the internet is changing, and how it’s changing us.

FOMO Has Survived the Coronavirus

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/16/technology/coronavirus-fomo.html
April 16, 2020 at 07:53PM

No one is going anywhere cool, and yet I still feel left out.

There’s No Place Like Home (Theater)

Facebook-Backed Libra Cryptocurrency Project Is Scaled Back

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/16/technology/facebook-libra-cryptocurrency.html
April 16, 2020 at 05:00PM

After months of criticism, the cryptocurrency is moving ahead with significant revisions.

Art Recreation Is the Only Good Instagram Challenge

Voices in AI – Episode 111: A Conversation with Robert Brooker

Source: https://gigaom.com/2020/04/16/voices-in-ai-episode-111-a-conversation-with-robert-brooker/
April 16, 2020 at 03:00PM

[voices_in_ai_byline]

About this Episode

On Episode 111 of Voices in AI, Byron discusses the nature of intelligence and Artificial Intelligence within the industrial internet with Robert Booker of Win-911.

Listen to this episode or read the full transcript at www.VoicesinAI.com

Transcript Excerpt

Byron: This is Voices in AI brought to you by GigaOm, and I’m Byron Reese. Today my guest is Robert Brooker. He is the Chairman of WIN-911, a technology company and part of the whole ‘industrial internet’ with offices in the US in Austin, Texas and in Mexico and Asia and in Europe. He holds an undergraduate degree in economics from Harvard as well as an MBA from the same institution.

He is a person with an amazing entrepreneurial past. He is said to have brought the bagel to Eastern Europe. Although he denies it, some people say he brought the hookah to the United States. I’m excited to have him on the show. Welcome to the show, Robert.

Robert: It’s nice to be here, Byron.

You’ve heard the show enough times to know I usually start off by asking “What is artificial intelligence?” How do you think of it? How do you define it? I’ll just leave it at that.

Artificial intelligence is semantically ambiguous. It could be that it’s artificial in the sense that it’s not real intelligence or it could be intelligence achieved artificially; in other words, without the use of the human brain. I think most people in this space adopt the latter because that’s really the more useful interpretation of artificial intelligence, that it’s something that is real intelligence and can be useful to the world and to our lives.

Sometimes I think of that as the difference between the instantiation of something and the simulation of something. Case in point: a computer can simulate a hurricane, but there isn’t really a hurricane there. It’s not an instantiation of a hurricane. I guess the same question is, is it simulating intelligence or is it actually intelligent? Do you think that distinction matters?

When I say ‘artificial’ as in the former definition, it seems on the surface to be intelligent. When you look further down, you determine it’s not intelligent. It may be helpful in terms of how I define intelligence. I like the standard dictionary definition of intelligence, and that is: the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills.

You could argue that a nematode worm is intelligent. It’s hard to argue that, for example, a mechanical clock is intelligent. Ultimately, different people are defining intelligence in different ways. I think it ultimately comes down to what people in the field are doing. They’re trying to make it useful when how it’s defined is almost on the side.

The most singular thing about AI and the way we do it now is that it isn’t general. I don’t mean that even in the science fiction artificial general intelligence [sense]. We have to take one very specific thing and spend a lot of time and energy and effort teaching the computer to do that one thing. To teach it to do something else, you largely have to start over. That doesn’t seem like intelligence.

At some level it feels like a bunch of simulations of solving one particular kind of problem. If you’re using the ‘acquire new skills’ definition, in a way it’s almost like none of it does that right now. No matter what, it’s limited to what it’s been programmed to do. Additional data alters that, but it doesn’t itself acquire new skills, does it?

I think the skills part is hard. The ‘acquire and apply knowledge’ is a little bit easier. In the case of a nematode worm, 302 neurons, what it can do is it can detect a smell and move toward the smell. If there’s food there, it says, “a-ha, this smell indicates food. When I smell it in the future, I’m going to go towards that smell and get the food.”

If the world later changes where that smell is longer associated with food, the nematode worm will start to not go towards the smell, learning that that smell no longer indicates food. Maybe some other smell indicates food. That in my mind indicates that the nematode worm is acquiring knowledge and applying knowledge. The skill part is harder, and I think that’s the same with AI. The skill part is very difficult. It’s not difficult for a chimpanzee or a human or some other animals, but I think it’s difficult for machines to do that.

The nematode worm, like you said, has 302 neurons, two of which don’t appear to be connected to anything. It functionally has 300. Don’t you think that amount of sophisticated behavior… do we even have a model for how 300 neurons [work]? Even if we don’t know the mechanics of it, a neuron can fire. It can fire on an analog basis. It’s not binary. The interplay of 300 of those can create that complex behavior of finding a mate and moving away from things that poke it and all of the rest. Does it seem odd that that can be achieved with so little when it takes us so much more time, hassle, and energy to get a computer to do the simplest, most rudimentary thing?

I think it’s amazing. The exponentialism of the nematode worm and real neural networks is incredible. For anyone who hasn’t spent time at openworm.org, which is the crowdsource effort to understand the nematode worm, I encourage you to spend at least an hour there. It’s fascinating. You think: ‘302 neurons, that’s simple. I should be able to figure it out.’

Then it’s all mapped out. Each neuron connects between a couple or maybe a couple dozen other neurons. You suddenly have 7,000 synapses. Wait, that’s not all. Each synapse is different. Figuring out how each synapse works becomes even more complicated.

Then there’s on top of that, the inner workings of a neuron. Change is going on within each neuron itself. I don’t know if this is the case with the nematode worm, but certainly in the case of the human brain and probably many other brains, there’s communication between and among neurons that takes place not in the synapses, but by exchanging chemicals. It’s incredible how just 300 neurons can suddenly become who knows how many bits. We really almost can’t even call them bits of information. It’s more of an analog concept, which has magnitudes more possibilities.

Viewed that way, the nematode worm is sort of an underachiever. It’s not getting a lot done with all that stuff it seems like, although they are 70% of all animals on the planet by one count. Would you agree that progress in artificial intelligence is moving quickly… or slowly?

It seems very slow. It’s interesting that most of your guests, at least from the podcasts I listen to, predict artificial general intelligence being 100 years or hundreds of years away. It does seem very slow. To your point a moment ago about how it’s very hard to transfer one thing to the other, we get visited by companies all the time in the industrial space. Industrial space is really good for artificial intelligence in theory because there’s really no or very little human language.

All the complexities of human language are gone because essentially it’s a machine. In the industrial setting it’s about: ‘how can you save a million dollars by using less energy? How can you make the defect rate of your product lower?’ These are all sort of readily quantifiable outcomes. Companies come to us that have created some sort of artificial intelligence to revolutionize or make industry much more efficient.

Typically what happens is that they’ll come to us because either they’re looking for funding or they’re looking for customers. We have a lot of customers, so they think we can somehow work together. They come to us and say oftentimes, “We have our first customer, and we save them a million dollars a year by making their process so much more efficient. If we could only apply that artificial intelligence to a thousand other companies, that’s a billion dollars’ worth of value. Therefore, we’re going to be great.”

You dig into it, and that one customer, the amount of human services, and this speaks a little bit to the issue about whether artificial intelligence will cause all these people to be out of work, there’s so much human interaction in just figuring out one project: all the normalization of the data, and then the AI is not quite figuring things out. A human intercedes and inserts another type of model based on human mental model. It’s almost like this notion that when humans and machines work together, you get a better outcome than machines alone. The nirvana or what people are trying to get at is that one thing, one AI that looks at all the industrial data. You don’t have any human language.

There’s a lot of things that you could call very simple even though there are a lot of complexities. The thing you want is something that will just look at all the data and figure everything out. No one’s been able to do that. It’s always been very specific to the context. Even in areas that should be simpler like industrial, which is more akin to playing chess or playing Go because it’s a game with fixed rules and fixed objectives, that are easily quantifiable, it’s still very difficult.

Listen to this episode or read the full transcript at www.VoicesinAI.com

[voices_in_ai_link_back]

Byron explores issues around artificial intelligence and conscious computers in his new book The Fourth Age: Smart Robots, Conscious Computers, and the Future of Humanity.

Electric Cars and the Lack of Charging in Cities

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/16/business/electric-cars-cities-chargers.html
April 16, 2020 at 01:00PM

For city dwellers who would love an E.V., the biggest hurdle might be keeping it juiced up without a garage or other convenient charging stations.

The Soundtrack to an Electric Car

Biden Is Losing the Internet. Does That Matter?

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/16/technology/joe-biden-internet.html
April 16, 2020 at 12:00PM

The coronavirus has forced the Democrats’ presumptive presidential nominee into an all-digital campaign, and he’s struggling to break through.

Wednesday, April 15, 2020

John Horton Conway, a ‘Magical Genius’ in Math, Dies at 82

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/15/technology/john-horton-conway-dead-coronavirus.html
April 16, 2020 at 01:09AM

He made profound contributions to number theory, coding theory, probability theory, topology, algebra and more — and created games from it all. He died of the coronavirus.

Amazon to Suspend Operations in France Over Coronavirus Dispute

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/15/business/amazon-france-covid.html
April 15, 2020 at 10:25PM

The move follows a French court order for the U.S. retailer to limit deliveries to essential goods amid controversy over virus safety measures.

When Court Moves Online, Do Dress Codes Still Matter?

Why the Apple iPhone SE Doesn't Matter

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/15/technology/iphone-se.html
April 15, 2020 at 07:46PM

New smartphones have become like refrigerators. They’re just not that exciting.

Why Apple’s New Phone Doesn’t Matter

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/15/technology/apple-iphone-coronavirus.html
April 15, 2020 at 07:46PM

New smartphones have become like refrigerators. They’re just not that exciting.

Apple, in a Virtual Unveiling, Introduces a $399 iPhone

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/15/technology/personaltech/apple-new-iphone-se.html
April 15, 2020 at 06:00PM

The new iPhone SE has the design of an older generation of iPhones, with the same computing power as newer ones.

The Virus Revealed Our Essential Tech (and Weeded Out the Excess)

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/15/technology/personaltech/virus-essential-tech.html
April 15, 2020 at 12:00PM

A computer with a good internet connection, communication apps and entertainment are the only tech we really need, ever.

Disney Plus Racks Up 50 Million Subscribers in 5 Months

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/08/business/disney-plus-50-million-subscribers.html
April 09, 2020 at 07:17AM

The Hollywood colossus has been crippled by the pandemic. Its upstart streaming service is one exception.

Tuesday, April 14, 2020

Even Google and Facebook May be Facing an Ad Slump

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/14/technology/coronavirus-google-facebook-advertising.html
April 14, 2020 at 08:02PM

Though ad sales at the two companies are expected to be down, they are likely to fare better than smaller peers and publishers.

‘We Can Do Better’: One Plan to Erase America’s Digital Divide

Coronavirus Tests Science’s Need for Speed Limits

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/14/science/coronavirus-disinformation.html
April 14, 2020 at 05:51PM

Preprint servers and peer-reviewed journals are seeing surging audiences, with many new readers not well versed in the limitations of the latest research findings.

VDI in the Age of Covid-19: Remote Work and the Challenge of the Virtualized Client

Source: https://gigaom.com/2020/04/08/vdi-in-the-age-of-covid-19-remote-work-and-the-challenge-of-the-virtualized-client/
April 08, 2020 at 12:47PM

These are trying times, not least because corporate life needs to go on, which for millions of businesses means delivering compute resources to employees at home. Remote work is no longer an option or an initiative – almost overnight it’s become a global imperative. And just like that, IT pros worldwide face a massive challenge.

One possible solution is Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI), which connects users via web browser into a virtual machine instance running on a server somewhere, be it inside a corporation’s data centers in Citrix or VMware, or provided by a cloud platform such as AWS or Azure.

Of course, the concept of remote access to a pre-configured virtual desktop is not new. I can remember how on one of my first analyst assignments, some two decades ago, I was tasked to determine the total cost of ownership (TCO) of thin-client systems against their local, rich-client desktop equivalents. Twenty years later, I return to this suddenly urgent topic to ask some of our analysts what’s new about VDI and how it might address our current challenge.

First off, VDI is still very much a thing, with technology that continues to evolve and leverage hosted, cloud models.

“Every company I’ve worked with in the last 15 years has started some sort of VDI environment – especially now that teams are upgrading or replacing legacy Citrix environments,” says Iben Rodriguez, whose day job crosses a number of enterprise clients in the financial and government sectors. “We had a company come to us for an expansion of their 1000-user AWS Workspaces solution, and another customer is moving 3000 users to a Microsoft VDI solution away from Citrix.”

He says that a 2009 user deployment on VMware Horizon VDI still runs on Cisco and EMC hardware.

And Iben contends that there’s still plenty of TCO to be found in VDI deployments. Even if endpoint hardware prices have dropped, cost overhead can still be significant in an unmanaged environment. The lower costs enabled by centralized control appears to be the compelling reason to move to a VDI approach. Add to that the security and management benefits across both the remote desktop and the communications link, and the benefits add up. Control enables simplicity, which reduces risk —all good reasons to adopt a virtualized model.

However, centralized control can cause conflicts with the user base, which is after all the group being served. And that conflict, says Andrew Brust, is all about end users wanting control.

“While VDI from old school Citrix and Remote Desktop to newer cloud-hosted platforms are cool, people find that desktop-on-desktop gets confusing and nobody loves it. Just as people like apps on their phones, people like to install software on their laptops and don’t love delegating control of that away — even if IT does.”

There’s another issue: Today’s ”perfect” desktop configuration may not be quite so perfect in six, 12 or 18 months. Management systems have a decay curve, which needs to be factored into the initial business case and approach.

“The gold image problem is real, and a real headache, says Ned Bellavance, who also warns that proper hardware needed to support good VDI can be costly. “And it doesn’t help with overwhelmed VPNs or disconnected scenarios.”

The answer, in part, lies in deciding what is worth fixing, and what should remain outside of centralized control. “When you factor stuff out that’s portable, it scales well,” says Brust. “When you try to replicate the full stack including the personal OS and environment, not so much.

He adds: “In general, centralizing and templatizing for large-scale deployment of things that are based on personal [computing] environments can hit glitches.”

If this sounds like a compromise, that’s because it is — at least in the short term. Looking further out, we can learn from another domain — Mobile Device Management (MDM) – which has evolved to help organizations control and secure smartphones and handheld devices.

“Many traditional MDM solutions moved to a mobile application management paradigm, because controlling the device is a pain,” says Bellavance. Core to the new MDM approach is the use of containers.

Containers, essentially stand-alone application modules that can run anywhere, are having an impact across the technology space — not least in massively scalable, cloud-based application architectures. Netflix, for example, is the poster child for containerization.

As it turns out, containers are also very useful when it comes to balancing control with user flexibility.

“It’s easier to control the app as a container on mobile devices,” Ned continues. “Ideally we would bring a similar container approach to desktop operating systems, and you wouldn’t need to mess about with local device management.”

Microsoft is an adopter of this model, with its InTune app protection product, and the company has leveraged containers to enable Windows to run on ARM processors.

“The container approach (broadly speaking) has been liberating in lots of ways. It’s made things work that seemed utterly insoluble for a very long time,” says Brust.

So, how can organizations adopt VDI today, while at the same time planning for the future? The answer is to be realistic on cost planning in the short term, particularly in terms of management and support overhead created by the huge increase in remote work. At the same time, IT organizations should watch for advances around containerization and how it can enable an optimal blend of end-user flexibility and centralized control.

Monday, April 13, 2020

My Long, Unending Journey to Find Perfect Office Equipment

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/08/smarter-living/ergonomic-office-equipment-work-from-home.html
April 11, 2020 at 10:59PM

Ergonomics are important, but remember, there’s no one solution for everybody.

SoftBank’s Troubles Deepen With Warning of $16.7 Billion Writedown

We’re Shopping a Ton Online. Let’s Be Conscientious About It

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/13/technology/coronavirus-ethical-shopping.html
April 13, 2020 at 07:55PM

How we shop during the pandemic could have big consequences.

The Art (and Awkwardness) of a Virtual Haircut

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/13/technology/coronavirus-virtual-haircut.html
April 13, 2020 at 12:00PM

My husband’s hair was looking shaggy. So were my bangs. A hairstylist came to our rescue — or did she? — over video chat.

The Lesson We Are Learning From Zoom

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/article/zoom-privacy-lessons.html
April 08, 2020 at 09:26PM

The popular app offered the simplest path to videoconferencing in a pandemic. That doesn’t make it the right path to take.

Sunday, April 12, 2020

When a Gaming Fantasy Is Eerily Close to Reality

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/08/arts/plague-inc-video-game-gaming-coronavirus-covid-pandemic.html
April 08, 2020 at 12:00PM

Plague Inc. has been around for eight years. In the coronavirus crisis, it’s tapping into fears but also offering comfort.

Friday, April 10, 2020

With A.I., the Secret Life of Pets Is Not So Secret

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/08/technology/ai-pets-apps.html
April 08, 2020 at 12:00PM

New technology in streaming cameras can flag unusual behavior or suggest why the dog might be barking.

Inside the Strip Clubs of Instagram

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/10/style/justin-laboy-instagram-strip-clubs-live.html
April 10, 2020 at 09:55PM

Going digital may be better for dancers.

Enlisted Late, Online Lenders Still Must Wait to Help Speed Up Stimulus

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/09/technology/online-lenders-stimulus-virus.html
April 10, 2020 at 01:32AM

The government wants to get loans to small businesses fast. But the lenders with the most experience with this have been unable to take part.

Apple and Google Team Up to ‘Contact Trace’ the Coronavirus

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/10/technology/apple-google-coronavirus-contact-tracing.html
April 10, 2020 at 08:01PM

The technology giants said they would embed a feature in iPhones and Android devices to enable people to track the virus.

Can Our Phones Stop a Pandemic?

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/10/technology/coronavirus-smartphones-surveillance.html
April 10, 2020 at 07:56PM

Some countries are using location data from smartphones to fight the pandemic. Should the United States?

Can Our Phones Stop a Pandemic?

How a 5G Coronavirus Conspiracy Theory Fueled Arson and Harassment in Britain

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/10/technology/coronavirus-5g-uk.html
April 10, 2020 at 06:20PM

A false idea linking the spread of the coronavirus to 5G wireless technology has spurred more than 100 incidents this month, officials said.

Why Animal Crossing Is the Game for the Coronavirus Moment

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/07/arts/animal-crossing-covid-coronavirus-popularity-millennials.html
April 07, 2020 at 09:41PM

With the world in the grip of a pandemic, the wildly popular game is a conveniently timed piece of whimsy, particularly for millennials.

Robots Welcome to Take Over, as Pandemic Accelerates Automation

Thursday, April 9, 2020

Enlisted Late, Online Lenders Still Must Wait to Help Speed Up Stimulus

Zoom Is Easy. That’s Why It’s Dangerous.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/09/technology/zoom-security.html
April 09, 2020 at 07:48PM

The best technology is simple to use. There’s a dark side to that.

The Humble Phone Call Has Made a Comeback

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/09/technology/phone-calls-voice-virus.html
April 09, 2020 at 05:27PM

The volume of phone calls has surged more than internet use as people want to hear each other’s voices in the pandemic.

Why Animal Crossing Is the Game for the Coronavirus Moment

Domestic Abusers Can Control Your Devices. Here’s How to Fight Back.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/06/smarter-living/wirecutter/domestic-abusers-can-control-your-devices-heres-how-to-fight-back.html
April 07, 2020 at 05:06PM

Here’s how to record abuse without being discovered, safeguard your devices, and, ultimately, protect yourself.

Wednesday, April 8, 2020

Zoom Rushes to Improve Privacy for Consumers Flooding Its Service

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/08/business/zoom-video-privacy-security-coronavirus.html
April 08, 2020 at 11:34PM

The features that allowed companies to hop on videoconferences also made it easy for trolls to hijack meetings and harass students.

‘Zoombombing’ Becomes a Dangerous Organized Effort

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/03/technology/zoom-harassment-abuse-racism-fbi-warning.html
April 07, 2020 at 06:02PM

Zoom, the videoconferencing app, has become a target for harassment and abuse coordinated in private off-platform chats.

The Lesson We Are Learning From Zoom

The Pandemic Feeds Tech Companies’ Power

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/08/technology/coronavirus-big-tech.html
April 08, 2020 at 07:43PM

Our online habits are changing, likely for good. This could make tech companies even more muscular.

The Lesson We Are Learning From Zoom

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/08/technology/personaltech/lesson-zoom-privacy-security-virus.html
April 08, 2020 at 07:10PM

The popular app offered the simplest path to videoconferencing in a pandemic. That doesn’t make it the right path to take.

Google Makes Stadia Gaming Service Free

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/08/technology/google-stadia-free-virus.html
April 08, 2020 at 07:00PM

The $130 entry fee is being waived indefinitely, as interest in playing video games surges during the coronavirus pandemic.

Uber and Lyft Drivers Face Hurdles to Stimulus Bill Benefits

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/08/business/economy/coronavirus-gig-unemployment.html
April 08, 2020 at 04:49PM

Gig workers seemingly eligible for unemployment pay because of the pandemic have met roadblocks to filing. Some fault Labor Department rules.

VDI in the Age of Covid-19: Remote Work and the Challenge of the Virtualized Client

Source: https://gigaom.com/2020/04/08/vdi-in-the-age-of-covid-19-remote-work-and-the-challenge-of-the-virtualized-client/
April 08, 2020 at 12:47PM

First off, VDI is still very much a thing, with technology that continues to evolve and leverage hosted, cloud models.

He says that a 2009 user deployment on VMware Horizon VDI still runs on Cisco and EMC hardware.

However, centralized control can cause conflicts with the user base, which is after all the group being served. And that conflict, says Andrew Brust, is all about end users wanting control.

He adds: “In general, centralizing and templatizing for large-scale deployment of things that are based on personal [computing] environments can hit glitches.”

As it turns out, containers are also very useful when it comes to balancing control with user flexibility.

Microsoft is an adopter of this model, with its InTune app protection product, and the company has leveraged containers to enable Windows to run on ARM processors.

“The container approach (broadly speaking) has been liberating in lots of ways. It’s made things work that seemed utterly insoluble for a very long time,” says Brust.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/08/dining/ai-food-sorting-machines.html
April 08, 2020 at 12:00PM

Machines are being trained to consider food the way a cook might, with attention to variations in shape and seasonality and qualities like sweetness or texture.

You Can’t Spell Creative Without A.I.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/08/technology/ai-creative-software-language.html
April 08, 2020 at 12:00PM

Advances in software applications that process human language lie at the heart of the debate over whether computer technologies will enhance or even substitute for human creativity.