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Researchers asked volunteers with normal brain function to imagine playing a game of tennis, which activates a specific area of the brain used for planning complex movements. Researchers were able to see the brain activity using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), which is a headset that, when placed on a patient’s head, uses beams of light to detect which areas of the brain are active. Volunteers were then told to imagine playing tennis to answer “yes” or to stay relaxed to answer “no....

Analysts claim the legislation has failed to protect competition, while giving companies routes to avoid enforcement. In 2023, the bloc has grand ambitions to change that. A key component of the plans is the new Digital Markets Act (DMA). The landmark legislation prohibits platforms from ranking their own products more favorably than those of third parties, and from processing data collected from different services. Fines for single infringements can reach 10% of the offenders’ global turnover, and up to 20% for repeated violations....

While the microbe emoji was first approved in 2018, different technology providers render it in strikingly different ways. For instance, the Apple version most clearly resembles a virus, while the Microsoft version is blue and resembles a bacterium.According to data from the website Emojipedia, common ways of representing COVID-19 include the microbe emoji ? and more generally the face with medical mask emoji ?. A sample of nearly 50,000 tweets from early March 2020, analyzed by Emojipedia, revealed that the top five emoji most strongly associated with COVID-19 were: In addition, some platforms have even created their own bespoke COVID-19 emoji....

This census has always been charged with political significance, and continues to be. That’s clear from the controversy over the conduct of the upcoming 2020 census. But it’s less widely known how important the census has been in developing the U.S. computer industry, a story that I tell in my new book, “Republic of Numbers: Unexpected Stories of Mathematical Americans through History.” Population growth The only use of the census clearly specified in the Constitution is to allocate seats in the House of Representatives....

While there are articles abound on how to smoothly transition to pleasantly working from home; my colleagues and I have been thinking a little more long term and I’d like to share our two cents on a crucial mindset that could help us through these times: resilience. And if you add grit and purpose to resilience, and you will reach what we Finns call sisu — here’s how we implement it in our organization....

But the practical use of AI algorithms is much farther behind than the hype caused by the media. From peer-reviewed breakthrough research presented at mainstream AI conferences to PR-style videos created by large tech companies and well-funded research labs, only a trickle of the innovation we see in the field makes it into real business processes and applications. And the organizations that are putting AI to good use are those who understand the powers and limits of today’s technology and master the challenges of integrating it into their processes and solutions....

Meanwhile, machine learning algorithms have already found their way into critical fields such as finance, health care, and transportation, where security failures can have severe repercussion. Parallel to the increased adoption of machine learning algorithms in different domains, there has been growing interest in adversarial machine learning, the field of research that explores ways learning algorithms can be compromised. And now, we finally have a framework to detect and respond to adversarial attacks against machine learning systems....

Previously, if your Instagram account was taken over by an attacker, recovering it would require wading through choppy customer support, or calling for assistance from white-hat hackers. Now, Instagram is rolling out new measures to help you get your account back more easily Here’s what you have to do in case your account gets hacked: Open the Instagram app, and go to the login page. Tap on ‘Need more help’....

The COVID-19 pandemic is having a major impact on both people and businesses. A total of 81% of the global workforce have had their workplace fully or partly closed and nearly 195 million full-time workers are currently at risk of losing their jobs. Adjusting your business strategy to the pandemic, or simply adapting to new working conditions and habits won’t be easy. It will require collaborative efforts and flexibility from the entire global workforce....

Look, life’s hard. Actually, life’s more than hard, it’s brutal. Every day is a challenge that’s more pressing than the last. So I ask you this… why should your computer have it so easy? If I want to update my life, it takes months, if not years, of hard work for some incremental change — but Apple thinks my computer should have an easy-to-install update on a regular basis? That’s not fair....

Twitter this week rolled out a new feature that allows mobile users to connect their new tweets to older ones. It’s a simple thing, but it could potentially resurrect hundreds of ancient, forgotten threads as people link their current thoughts to their previous ones. The feature is expected to roll out to all iOS users over the next few days. It’s also a fairly easy feature to use. Here’s how it works....

The report suggests the mid-range device might be priced around 2000 Yuan ($288). Its aim is to attract developers and users to to join the ecosystem, which is being built to rival Google’s Android OS. As such, the goal may not be to initially sell large volumes of this model, but to introduce HongMeng OS in a low-cost package. The company is set to host its developer conference in Dongguan, China on August 9; Huawei may take that opportunity to officially announce its new OS then....

Why is everyone talking about hydrogen? If hydrogen fuel is the future, it has been for quite some time. In 1874, science fiction author Jules Verne set out a prescient vision of hydrogen as an inexhaustible source of energy that has inspired governments and entrepreneurs ever since. During the oil crisis in the 1970’s, hydrogen resurfaced once again as a potential alternative fuel for cars and, in 2003, George Bush heralded hydrogen vehicles during the first wave of real concern about climate change....

The solution The Maryland team came up with a theoretical method by which hyperdimensional computing – a hypervector-based alternative to computations based on Booleans and numbers – could replace current deep learning methods for processing sensory information. According to Anton Mitrokhin, a PhD student and author on the team’s research paper, this is important because there’s a processing bottle-neck keeping AI from functioning like humans do: The creation of memories – something current AI doesn’t have – is important for the prediction of future tasks....

Yet, business survival for SMEs has been continuously challenged since the pandemic. After suffering the consequences of the COVID crisis, SMEs are now particularly affected by soaring energy prices, inflation, supply chain bottlenecks, and changed consumer behavior. That’s especially the case in the retail, food, and restaurant sectors — among those that were hit hardest during the pandemic. A survey conducted by Glovo, a Spanish startup that provides on-demand delivery services, found that European SMEs in these sectors are worried about their future growth prospects....

When you read about OKR, you often read about the advantages that it has for a business, such as becoming better aligned or becoming more results-driven — but the effect on employees is rarely mentioned. I have accompanied hundreds of OKR implementations at companies worldwide and even trained Google on how to build OKR. From my experience it’s not fully clear across organizations if employees also benefit from OKR. So let’s take a closer look at that....

When I build a chair, I almost always make the same mistake. While I’m working on it, I tell myself: “This is just a trial run, and once I really understand the process, I’ll make another one, and it will be perfect.” But then I never build another one, and I’m stuck with the first version of my chair. The first time you assemble an Ikea closet, it all fits snugly....

If it goes through, it would mean that the EU recognizes India’s data protections as equivalent to those required by GDPR. This, in turn, would allow EU tech firms to store and transfer data in India, and could enable companies in Europe to outsource data-intensive projects to India while complying with GDPR. The rules hold ‘controllers’ – people and organizations in charge of others’ data – responsible for properly handling and protecting the information they’ve collected....

Dubbed “The Follower,” the project tracks Instagrammers in the wild. In the process, it offers a glimpse at the terrifying capabilities of automated surveillance. The experiment is the brainchild of Dries Depoorter, a Belgian artist who previously caught our attention by monitoring politicians using phones at work. For his latest demonstration of tech’s dangers, Depoorter analyzed feeds from open cameras, which offer easy access to images of public places (and sometimes private ones)....

It’s important to note that Instagram had a Lite version prior to this, but it was killed off last May to pave the way for this new version. The technology behind Instagram Lite Facebook’s team has managed to squeeze a lot of Instagram’s functionality into the Lite app, despite its reduced size. While the main app is sized at 30MB on download, the Lite app is just 2MB. Instagram Lite doesn’t have AR-based stickers and effects in order to reduce the size....