Cyber Watch - What Do Rock Legend David Bowie, A Smart City and Cyborg Eye Implants Have in Common?
When the late David Bowie sang, “ch-ch-ch-ch-changes – turn and face the strange,” he certainly must’ve been having a premonition about what’s happening in the world of technology this week.
Remember when you were younger, watching the Jetsons and thinking how cool it would be to have a walking, talking robot that cleaned your house and cooked your meals? Or a conveyer-belt chamber that you could hop inside every morning and get a good cleaning from head to toe?
Surely the house cleaning robots are on their way (helloooo, Roomba!), but what say ye to cyborg eye implants or genome editing? According to A.I. expert at Amazon, Pilar manchon, they’re coming.
From the sounds of it, these revolutionary breakthroughs will most likely be happening from inside of the U.S.’s very first “smart city,” an Arizona-based town that’s in the works, funded by none other than Bill Gates.
Keeping up with the latest movements in the tech world means staying on top of hot jobs, particularly in the world of cyber security. Lots of happenings in the digital age means lots of need for security. Read on this week to find out more about the shortage in this high-demand field.
Let’s dive into our week in review and our editors’ favorite article picks of the week…
Bill Gates Dedicates $80 Million to Building a Smart City From Scratch
An investment company tied to billionaire investor and former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates is throwing $80 million into building a smart city from scratch in Arizona. An investment firm controlled by Gates paid the money to Belmont Partners, the real estate developer currently controlling the land, the Arizona Republic reported on Wednesday. According to a statement cited by local news outlets from a law firm representing Belmont Partners, the development will have a focus on “high-speed digital networks, data centers, new manufacturing technologies and distribution models, autonomous vehicles and autonomous logistics hubs.” The city will be called Belmont.
The land is a roughly 25,000-acre largely undeveloped swath just west of Phoenix. Belmont Partners says the land has the potential for about 80,000 homes, while 3,800 acres could be dedicated to office, industrial and retail space, and about 470 acres could be used for public schools. More on the smart city movement…
With Technology Changing So Fast, Is Experience Still Important For Software Developers?
Since computer technology evolves so rapidly, does it matter if you have 5 or 15 years of experience as e.g. software developer? originally appeared on Quora - the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world.
Computer technology and programming languages are different things.
New programming languages, frameworks, and libraries pop up all the time. That’s fine and the market is broad - some of them pick up and become popular while most can’t get traction.
Computer technology, on the other hand, doesn’t evolve as rapidly. Desktop computers have been around for decades. Laptops work in the very same way - except for the portability aspect, which basically ports existing hardware to mobile formats (adhering to the same architectural standards). So a programmer building software twenty years ago was solving the same problems (more or less) as an engineer does in 2017. Some programming languages and libraries (or frameworks) make that easier by providing the toolkit automating some of those paradigms.
Acute Cybersecurity Skills Shortage Areas
New research from ESG and the Information Systems Security Association (ISSA), revealing that 70% of cybersecurity pros say that the global cybersecurity skills shortage has impacted their organizations. Based upon this and other similar research, I’m convinced that the cybersecurity skills shortage represents an existential risk to our data, businesses, and national security.
The data indicates that most organization don’t have enough cybersecurity staffers, don’t have some necessary cybersecurity skills, or both – a daunting situation. ESG and ISSA also wanted to uncover areas where cybersecurity skills shortages are most acute. These are the top three cybersecurity skills shortage areas.
Embrace technology-enhanced superpowers to improve world, Amazon expert urges
Pilar Manchon, an artificial intelligence expert at Amazon, says the age of the technology-enhanced superhuman has arrived, and it's up to everyone to grab those ever-growing superpowers to help change the world for the better.
"The age of superhumans is here. Are you ready to jump?" Manchon asked several hundred El Paso and Juárez high school and college students Thursday at the second day of the Reset binational technology conference in Downtown El Paso.
Organizers said about 600 students attended the El Paso portion of the conference at The Venue at Union Plaza meeting facility. About 3,000 attended Wednesday's session at Juárez's Technology Hub, a startup incubator and one of the Reset conference organizers.
Manchon said, "Technology is already here today that allows us to do much more than we were meant to do" — from Google's proposed cyborg eye implants to Crispr technology for editing genomes. Read more…
