Archive for June 1, 2018

The Russians Want To Speak To Zuckerberg…. No. Really

Posted in Commentary with tags on June 1, 2018 by itnerd

I guess Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s statements about election meddling and the like in front of the EU Parliament and the US Congress got the Russians attention. Because they want him to show up and talk to them:

Russian senators want Zuckerberg to testify on topics such as information security, privacy, and the “dissemination of harmful content.”

When one senator objected to the visit on the grounds that Zuckerberg was a “Russophobe,” Speaker Mativyenko responded, “Why shouldn’t the Federation Council enter into dialogue and ask him about his Russophobic statements?”

Now Facebook hasn’t said if they’re going to make him available. But I’m pretty sure that it’s not going to happen and there’s likely no way they could force him to show up. So to me this seems more like a PR exercise for the domestic market where the Russians win regardless of how this ends up.

 

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Teens Just Aren’t Into Facebook As Much: Pew Research

Posted in Commentary with tags on June 1, 2018 by itnerd

A new study conducted by Pew Research found that just 51 percent of Americans from 13 to 17-years-old say they use Facebook, down from 71 percent in 2015. The study was only conducted among nearly 750 teens in a one month period earlier in the spring. Apparently Facebook has been replaced by YouTube as the cool place for teens to hang out online. Then comes Instagram (or “Insta” as a teen in my condo keeps saying), followed by Snapchat, Twitter, and Tumblr.

If you’re Mark Zuckerberg, you have to be a wee bit concerned as your ad revenues are going to take a wee bit of a hit. And your shareholders will be a wee bit ticked off at you. Oh wait. They already are for different reasons.

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Avaya Announces Strategic Moves To Accelerate Innovation

Posted in Commentary with tags on June 1, 2018 by itnerd

Avaya Holdings Corp. today announced strategic moves that highlight its continued focus on innovation and accelerate its momentum in driving customer success. Avaya has formed a new Innovation Incubator led by Laurent Philonenko, SVP, Innovation. Chris McGugan, who recently re-joined Avaya, will assume Philonenko’s former role as SVP, Solutions and Technology. McGugan’s deep domain knowledge of communication technologies coupled with his passion about delivering solutions that enhance business outcomes will benefit Avaya’s portfolio and go to market capabilities.

The Avaya Innovation Incubator is chartered with creating new, disruptive solutions in the market, such as the recently announced Avaya Mobile Experience. The Incubator will focus on mobility, security and artificial intelligence in particular, drawing on input from customers, partners, internal development and a future planned ecosystem to foster promising start-ups and entrepreneurs.

Avaya is a global leader in digital communications software, services and devices for businesses of all sizes. Our open, intelligent and customizable solutions for contact centers and unified communications offer the flexibility of Cloud, on-premises and hybrid deployments. For more information, please visit www.avaya.com

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OpenText Allows You To See How The Government Of Canada Is Tracking G7 Sentiment In Real-Time

Posted in Commentary with tags on June 1, 2018 by itnerd

OpenText the global leader in Enterprise Information Management (EIM), today announced the launch of a real-time sentiment analysis tool developed for the Government of Canada to help them understand media and social opinion on the themes of Canada’s 2018 G7 Presidency: Investing in growth that works for everyone, Preparing for jobs of the future, Advancing gender equality and women’s empowerment, Working together on climate change, oceans and clean energy and Building a more peaceful and secure world.

The application – accessible online at http://myg7.ca | http://mong7.ca – is built using OpenText Magellan, an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered Analytics platform that searches the web for publicly available G7 articles and tweets, and retrieves the raw text for evaluation.

This tool draws on Twitter and online news activity about Canada’s 2018 G7 Presidency in real time, creating an interactive dashboard that displays sentiment and breaks down the key themes in an interactive way to show what issues what matter most to citizens around the world.

OpenText enables organizations to gain insight through market leading information management solutions, on premises or in the cloud. For more information about OpenText visit opentext.com.

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Review: 2018 Mazda CX-5 GT – Part 5

Posted in Products with tags on June 1, 2018 by itnerd

So I’ve come to the end of my week long review of the Mazda CX-5. Now, what does it compete against? I’ll start with the usual suspects which are the Honda CR-V, Toyota RAV4, Nissan Rogue. Hyundai Tucson which I reviewed a couple of years ago, Ford Escape and Kia Sportage. But the interior of the CX-5 is above and beyond what’s in all of these vehicles and so are the driving dynamics. Not to mention the exterior looks. But the big news is the inclusion of cylinder deactivation technology which saves you gas and by extension cash. All of that in my mind pushes the CX-5 to the front of the pack.

Speaking of fuel economy, my final fuel economy was 8.9 L/100KM’s. Seeing as I recorded 9.9 L/100 KM’s in last years model, that’s a 1 L/100KM’s difference. That’s a marginal gain. But that marginal gain adds up over a week, a month or a year as you’re going further on less gas with no change in performance. That in my mind makes this marginal gain a significant gain.

Now the CX-5 GT that I had this weeks goes for $38,495 (freight included). But you can get a CX-5 for $25,900 which is right in the range of it’s main competitors. Given the level of content that comes with the CX-5 GT, and the fuel economy that this SUV is capable of, that’s good value for money. And it’s another reason why the it will continue to be one of the top sellers in the highly competitive compact SUV space.

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