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Equinix said it expects the deal to close at some point in the first quarter of 2022 and noted that MainOne’s presence in two of the continent’s biggest countries – in terms of population and economy – made it attractive as the company expands globally. MainOne was founded in 2010 by Funke Opeke and now has three data centers, with another slated to be completed in 2022. The company has a 7,000km subsea network from Portugal to Lagos, Accra, and along the West African coast, with landing stations in Nigeria, Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire, as well as 1,200km of terrestrial fiber network across southern Nigeria....

For example, you can use the light sensor to turn a light on or off based on the amount of natural light in a room. Or you can use the motion portion of the sensor to turn a light on when you walk into a room and then turn it off after motion hasn’t been detected for a set amount of time. It’s powered by two AAA batteries, has Bluetooth connectivity, and can be used inside or outside, thanks to an IPX3 water resistance rating....

Out of the blue, he asked me to give him a five-minute version of what I would present to the group during the lunch. I thought for a minute, pulled a pen out of my pocket, and asked him for five business cards. I summarized everything I know about personal finance in a pocket-friendly presentation in those next five minutes. Here’s what I wrote (with some extensive explanations): [This article was first published on The Simple Dollar in 2020....

He dances, but he can’t dribble. He’s been very successful, but what are the characteristics that made Steve Ballmer the, um, popular CEO that he became? You’ve likely asked yourself that many times, as you’ve battled with one version of Windows or another. Thankfully, I’m finally prepared to offer you something of an answer, one that may make you sleep better at night. You see, I’ve run headlong into a surprising Ballmerian confession....

The four-year, $1 billion grant fund is something state and local governments have been waiting for to help tackle their growing cybersecurity to-do list. To receive a portion of the millions of dollars in grant funding each year, states have to match a specified percentage of the federal dollars. The percentage starts at 10% and grows to 40% over the next four years. The idea is that states will get used to accounting for cyber funding in their budgets as a result....

To that end, the company on Thursday announced Ego4D, a data set of 2,792 hours of first-person video, and a set of benchmark tests for neural nets, designed to encourage the development of AI that is savvier about what it’s like to move through virtual worlds from a first-person perspective. The project is a collaboration between Facebook Reality Labs and scholars from 13 research institutions, including academic institutions and research labs....

Zeppelin emerged in late 2019 as a ransomware-as-a-service double-extortion operation and was previously called VegaLocker ransomware. It was known for targeting healthcare sector organizations across Europe and North America. The agencies say the group has also targeted defense contractors, educational institutions, manufacturers, technology companies, but notes it has “especially” targeted organizations in the healthcare and medical industries. According to the joint advisory, Zeppelin actors have also compromised victim networks by exploiting remote desktop protocol (RDP), SonicWall firewall vulnerabilities, and phishing....

When users use a private window in Firefox, the connection to the requested domain will now default to HTTPS even if a user manually enters the HTTP protocol. An HTTPS-first request will also be made if a user clicks on an HTTP link. The browser maker warned that HTTPS by default only allows to the page itself, and not necessarily all images, CSS, or JavaScript files loaded by the page....

The new products range from $99.95 to $299.95 and are available now for pre-order, with availability this fall. All three new wearables include a free six-month Premium membership so you can fully experience all that Fitbit has to offer. Also: Best smartwatches for Android users: Top Apple Watch alternatives Fitbit Sense 2 At the top of the list, we have the Fitbit Sense 2 which includes a new Body Response sensor that takes the EDA capability to the next level with a continuous electrodermal activity feature for all-day stress management....

This business-oriented laptop features an Intel Core i5-1155G7 processor with a 2.5GHz refresh rate (that you can boost up to 4.5GHz when the occasion calls for it). It features 16GB of RAM and 512GB of SSD storage, offering the perfect balance for creating documents, processing invoices, and more. The 13.4-inch screen offers a full HD touchscreen for days when you need to work on the go. Plus, with an integrated Intel Iris XE graphics card, it can handle labor-intensive graphics tasks....

Fortinet delivered second quarter revenue of $801.1 million, up 29.7% from a year ago. For the second quarter, Fortinet’s non-GAAP earnings of $0.95 a share were above expectations. Wall Street was expecting Fortinet to report second quarter earnings of $0.87 a share on revenue of $744.14 million. For 2021, Fortinet is projecting revenue of $3.21 billion to $3.25 billion with non-GAAP earnings of $3.75 to $3.90 a share. For the third quarter, Fortinet is projecting revenue between $800 million and $815 million with non-GAAP earnings between $0....

Framework is, as the youth like to say, built different. It’s one of the few companies that I’ve seen actually go beyond the fully-recycled boxes and charger-less packaging and create a product that’s practical, purposeful, and ethical. In full support of the Right to Repair movement, Framework’s computers are modular, meaning you can swap out parts, components, batteries, and more at any given time. You can find all the customizable parts, assembly tools, and instruction manuals on the official website, with transparency front-and-center for the business operation....

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and an investor in OpenAI when the company was first founded, has made his position against further AI advancements clear. Also: ChatGPT is more like an ‘alien intelligence’ than a human brain, says futurist Musk was one of the first signers of an open letter, which has now garnered over 13,547 signatures including that of Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, to immediately pause the training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4 for at least 6 months....

The letter revealed several upcoming projects for the Google-owned video-streaming service, with the biggest standout being the implementation of generative AI on the platform. ChatGPT’s massive popularity since launching has prompted other platforms – such as Google Search, Bing, Snapchat, and Skype – to begin strategizing how they can emulate its success. Not surprisingly, YouTube wants to get in on the action. Also: ChatGPT: What the New York Times and others are getting terribly wrong about it When Wojcicki stepped down back in February, she alluded to the fact that YouTube had AI projects in the works....

Under a new provision of the German Competition Act, introduced by lawmakers in early 2021, the FCO can ban what it deems to be anti-competitive activities by large companies. President of the FCO Andreas Mundt stated that Meta’s large user base and expansive ad-supported digital ecosystem – which also includes WhatsApp and Instagram – clearly illustrates that the company is a key social media player. “Following a proceeding which was contested for some time, we have now formally proven the company’s relevant position....

With the cost of living and inflation both skyrocketing, everyone seems to be scrambling to figure out how to generate more income, stretch the funds they have or both. While some might try taking on extra work, others may take online skills training to become eligible for promotions or higher-paying careers. Investing is another option, but it can be stressful if you’re not an expert because making mistakes is far too common....

Despite the ongoing shifts in how and where developers are operating, GitHub found coding milestones are actually being reached faster. This is due to a combination of more efficient review frameworks, an 87% boost in speed resulting from reused code and toolchains, and the expanded use of automation. This last factor was apparently responsible for increasing merged pull requests by 36% and reducing merge timeframes by 33%. Despite all of these structural changes, most developers told GitHub they continue to rely on Python and Java, particularly TypeScript....

Crazy? Confusing? Uplifting after the pandemic was finally deemed to have receded? Miserable because you quiet-quit and then got quiet-fired? For tech companies, it’s all seemed relatively sobering. They began to realize their glory might be finite. Their employees began to realize their jobs might be finite too. Some companies, though, continued to believe that everything would be just fine. Apple, for example, appeared to frustrate customers only because it couldn’t get enough iPhones into stores....

Google Bard was released four months after OpenAI’s extremely capable and powerful ChatGPT was made available to the public. During that time, Bing Chat also entered the scene and held its own against ChatGPT. Also: ChatGPT vs. Bing Chat: Which AI chatbot should you use? Therefore, when Google Bard was unveiled, it had the challenge of either surpassing or meeting both ChatGPT’s and Bing Chat’s capabilities – which it didn’t....

In effect, “We make it really hard to cause breaking changes for these APIs that would require our customers to do work,” Kripa Krishnan, VP of Google Cloud and Technical Infrastructure, explained to ZDNet. “Over the last several years at Google Cloud, we’ve really been trying to invest time to improve the experience of our customers on our platform,” she continued. “So this is just another step. We’ve faced some criticism in how we support customers, especially with the stability of our API’s – for example, removing APIs without notice or [giving customers] enough time to respond....