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Caltrain will finally go electric thanks to FTA funding
The future of California's high-speed rail project relies in part on an initiative to migrate Silicon Valley's Caltrain corridor from a fleet of outdated diesel engines to a more modern electric system. That electrification project was put in jeopardy earlier this year when state Republicans asked Trump's Department of Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao to block a $650 million federal grant, claiming it should be shut down due to cost overruns. Now, in response to Caltrain's petition, the Federal Transit Administration has announced it will approve the funds and the upgrade can finally move forward after decades of delays.
The ridiculous Not Hotdog app from 'Silicon Valley' is real
Our long national nightmare is over: Thanks to HBO and Silicon Valley there's finally an app that will tell you if the object you pointed your phone's camera at is a hot dog or not. For fans of the show, it's a cute joke, but everyone else might be a little puzzled. As a brief bit of background, T.J. Miller's character Erlich Bachman accidentally invested in an app he thought had something to do with Oculus, when, in actuality, it was an application with recipes for preparing octopus rather than anything to do with virtual reality. A common mistake, to be sure.
WSJ: Facebook rejects female-authored code more often than male
Facebook has been accused of issues with bias before, but that was about suppressing conservative political views. Today's allegations run into sexism territory. But rather than being something surface-level seen explicitly by its users, the Wall Street Journal reports that back-end code written by female engineers is rejected more often than work by males by 35 percent.
LeEco is reportedly selling the site for its Silicon Valley HQ
Chinese tech giant LeEco might not get the chance to build the massive Silicon Valley HQ it wanted. According to Reuters, it's selling the 49-acre property a year after it bought the site from Yahoo and in the midst of serious financial issues. LeEco had big plans to conquer the US market, including the development of a "Tesla killer" electric car. Unfortunately, it expanded too quickly and ended up hurting for cash. Co-founder Jia Yueting told employees through a letter that the company "blindly sped ahead, and [its] cash demand ballooned. [It] got over-extended in [its] global strategy."
Federal judge temporarily suspends the revised travel ban
A federal judge in Hawaii has halted President Donald Trump's immigration ban targeting six majority-Muslim nations, just one day before the order was scheduled to take effect. The technology industry has been a leading voice of opposition to a proposed travel ban, and this morning 58 companies signed an amicus brief in support of Hawaii's lawsuit.
Here's our first look at HBO's 'Silicon Valley' season four
Richard Hendricks, the hapless-yet-brilliant lead of HBO's Silicon Valley, is back. And once again, he has some big ideas percolating, judging from the show's first teaser trailer. But his path to glory will likely be littered with plenty of setbacks, humiliation and hilarity. Just a guess (based on how things have worked out so far on the Mike Judge series). When last we left the Pied Piper team, they were considering pivoting away from the exciting world of compression. But it sounds like things won't go as smoothly as they expect when the show returns on April 23rd.
HBO's 'Silicon Valley' returns April 23rd
HBO's tech-industry satire Silicon Valley will return for its fourth season on April 24th. Despite its usual lead-in Game of Thrones likely getting a late start on its seventh season, Pied Piper & Co. are returning in their usual spring window. We don't have any details on what they're getting up to over the next ten episodes or even a teaser trailer, but we did get a quick visit with some of the cast members via Instagram.
GitHub rallies Silicon Valley companies to oppose Muslim ban
GitHub plans to meet with a number of Silicon Valley tech companies to discuss filing an amicus brief in lawsuits targeting Trump's immigration and refugee ban.
Pursue startup success at any cost in 'The Founder'
If you've ever wanted to play through a cynical take on Silicon Valley in a Sims-like fashion, Francis Tseng has a game for you. It's called The Founder and this dystopian look at the founding and success of a startup comes in the form of a browser-based game. You start out in 2001, plotting to take over the world after naming your company, picking a business and adding your first employee. Of course, you're working in an apartment like all new companies do.
Tech workers unite against a potential US Muslim registry
Employees from large organizations across the technology industry have pledged to never help build a government database targeting individuals by race, religion or national origin, in response to extreme immigration proposals from US President-elect Donald Trump. The signatories come from companies including Google, IBM, Twitter, Mozilla and NVIDIA, though they don't represent the organizations themselves.
ICYMI: Using brain power to move a game character
try{document.getElementById("aol-cms-player-1").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: University of Washington researchers were able to use a magnetic coil at the base of test subjects skulls to watch them play a simplified 2D computer game with just the power of their thoughts. Meanwhile UC Berkeley researchers built a small robot called the SALTO that weighs only 100 grams but is based on the jumping abilities of kangaroos. Google just created a bit of fun on its Twitter account, where users can tweet at the search engine with emojis, then get a response from the account show the nearest location for whatever taco or burger you need asap. 'Cause typing into a search bar is passé now, I guess. For your reminder that: Scientists, they're just like us!-- be sure to check out CERN's silly Mannequin Challenge. As always, please share any interesting tech or science videos you find by using the #ICYMI hashtag on Twitter for @mskerryd.
AngelList buys tech discovery site Product Hunt
Product Hunt's discovery site for genuinely useful technology has been bought by AngelList. The terms of the deal weren't disclosed, however Recode is putting the number at around $20 million. The acquisition involves a mixture of cash and stock, and will see ProductHunt "remain an independent platform," according to its CEO Ryan Hoover. "We'll continue to use excessive emojis, drink Philz, and build in public with our community," he wrote on Medium. ProductHunt launched in 2013 with a simple premise: surface the hottest startups and services. It's since become a Silicon Valley darling, expanding into games, books and other categories.
Trump advisor takes issue with Silicon Valley's Asian CEOs
Before President-elect Donald Trump's chief strategist Stephen Bannon was headed to the White House, he was running "platform for the alt-right" website Breitbart News. Aside from overseeing the publication of anti-Semitic and misogynistic articles, Bannon also hosted the site's Sirius XM radio show. A segment from November 5th, 2015 that featured an interview with Trump has resurfaced thanks to The Washington Post. Mostly, it covers stuff like campaign financing, but at around the 16:23 mark, talk goes to H-1B visas for skilled workers to help keep them in the country after graduating from college.
Peter Thiel's tech wealth made him a First Amendment gatekeeper
Peter Thiel built his fortune in Silicon Valley as a founder of PayPal, an early backer of Facebook and a venture capitalist focused on the technology industry. He's living proof of the Bay Area's ability to make billionaires of mortal men. Using a fraction of his tech billions, Thiel bankrolled Hulk Hogan's lawsuit against Gawker Media earlier this year, which eventually led to the company declaring bankruptcy and shutting down Gawker.com. Thiel had held a grudge against the site for years, after he claimed it outed him as gay in 2007. Since the Gawker ruling, Thiel has fielded questions about the ethics of a billionaire effectively using his money to shut down a news organization that he didn't like, a move that some argue violate the site's First Amendment rights. He's responded by calling his $10 million support of Hulk Hogan's lawsuit "one of [the] greater philanthropic things" that he's ever done. Thiel has also said he's backing other, similar lawsuits. During a Q&A session at the National Press Club today, Thiel explained three key things about the Gawker lawsuit:
ICYMI: Channel your inner magician with IoT controllers
try{document.getElementById("aol-cms-player-1").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: If you've gotten chicken juice on your smartphone one too many times while trying to whip up a masterpiece in the kitchen, you may be interested in a motion sensor that you can control with a wave of your hand. There's the practical option, or the adorable. Do you. Meanwhile, an MIT study aims to understand urban decay and will next automate the process of scoring city photos to help with urban planning. The parody video your shortcut-obsessed friend needs to see is here, while the Silicon Valley Fashion Show story is here. As always, please share any interesting tech or science videos you find by using the #ICYMI hashtag on Twitter for @mskerryd.
Google's futuristic campus closer to reality after land deal
In a surprising real estate move for two Silicon Valley giants, Google and LinkedIn just traded nearly 3.5 million square feet of existing office buildings and future development space in Mountain View, California. As Silicon Valley Business Journal reports today, exactly zero dollars changed hands in the deal, but the "grand bargain" will clear a path for Google's futuristic new campus design.
Dear Silicon Valley: Not everything can be solved with apps
In the wake of the shooting of Philando Castile by a police officer in Falcon Heights, Minnesota, Shervin Pishevar, a prominent investor in Silicon Valley, came up with an idea: a mobile app. The app, as he describes it to USA Today, would be used by both police officers and citizens to communicate via a FaceTime-like call so that neither side would have to leave their vehicles. It would let them exchange information such as driver's license and registration, record audio and video at traffic stops and even have a panic button to contact "specially trained officers" in the event of an emergency. What the app doesn't do, however, is provide a meaningful solution to the problem of racism and police brutality.
What's on your HDTV: 'The Revenant,' 'Better Call Saul,' 'Game of Thrones'
As the NBA and NHL playoffs get into gear, it's also time for the second season of Better Call Saul to wrap up. Meanwhile, The Revenant is ready on both Blu-ray and Ultra HD Blu-ray, while Star Fox Zero is coming home on Wii U. Of course, the big hitters this week are HBO's Game of Thrones and Silicon Valley(and don't forget Beyonce's Lemonade special) but before those arrive we can expect the full third season of Deadbeat on Hulu, Thunderbirds are Go on Amazon, and a new Patton Oswalt comedy special on Netflix. Finally, after the season finale of Broad City, check out Ilana Glazer in the Time Traveling Bong mini-series. Look after the break to check out each day's highlights, including trailers and let us know what you think (or what we missed).
Silicon Valley execs highlight tech's equality problem
Silicon Valley is slowly taking steps to address its diversity and equality issues, but oftentimes this problem is spoken as if just hiring from a wider pool of people will solve everything. There is another issue, which is centered around the toxic bro culture that appears to permeate swathes of the technology industry. That's why a group of prominent women decided to conduct a survey that highlights the indignities that they face on a regular basis. The project polled around 200 people, each of whom has at least 10 years experience in the technology industry, and the results make you wonder if we're still living in the 1950s.
'Game of Thrones' season six debuts on HBO April 24th
Is ____________ really dead? We might find out on April 24th when Game of Thrones' sixth season premieres on HBO. Aside from the dramatic fantasy series, the lovable slackers of Silicon Valley return that night as well as Julia Louis-Dreyfus and the rest of the Veep gang. Just don't pirate any of this, okay?
