tech news - Page 308 of 311

How COVID-19 Misinformation Continues to Go Viral

wazup May 11, 2020 Comments Closed 245 views

Sourced from Speechling. Despite pledges from massive social media companies to remove dangerous instances of coronavirus misinformation – from false causes to false cures – Silicon Valley and fact-checkers around the world are struggling to stem the flow of fake news about the pandemic. Last week, a video titled “Plandemic” went viral, clocking up millions of views and clicks across Facebook and YouTube before the companies took action. “I’ve not seen a video of this type gain this kind of viral traction so quickly,” Alan Duke, the editor in chief of Lead Stories, a fact-checking group that works with Facebook told CNN. As of last-week Thursday afternoon, a book that features the subject of “Plandemic” has rocketed to number 1 on Amazon’s Best Seller’s List, where it remained over the wee...

Politics

What to Expect from the 2020 Bitcoin Halving

wazup May 11, 2020 Comments Closed 278 views

The Bitcoin halving is a planned reduction in rewards miners receive. Halvings happen once every four years or so. And the next one will take place in the early hours of Tuesday, 12 May 2020. What exactly is a halving and why does it happen? Bitcoin is generated by miners. They have computers performing complex calculations which validate the transactions on a public digital ledger, called the blockchain. The miners compete with each other to earn newly-issued tokens known as a block reward. A halving is a 50% reduction in the value of rewards to Bitcoin miners. There is a finite number of Bitcoin that will ever be in circulation (21 million) and there is no way of producing more. Halvings are a unique protocol which controls the supply of Bitcoin. /* custom css */ .tdi_3_98b.td-a-rec-img{...

Politics

Workplace Health Surveillance Tool Launched in South Africa

wazup May 11, 2020 Comments Closed 246 views

Sourced from ISHN.com As more South Africans return to work in May, workplaces are re-designing to combat COVID-19 infection, while simultaneously reassuring workers are the new priority. Fortunately, South African innovation is rising to the challenge of reimagining shared workspaces in the COVID-19 era and a timely example of this is HealthID. Launched this week by a group of Cape Town-based entrepreneurs, HealthID helps employers comply with new government regulations that stipulate they should not only screen employees for signs of COVID-19 infection, but they must specifically create and maintain a database outlining the health status of individual workers. “It’s doubtful any reputable employer would want to incur the wrath of the Department of Labour inspectors by recording something...

Politics

GovChat to Digitise Africa’s Largest COVID-19 Social Relief Campaign

wazup May 11, 2020 Comments Closed 224 views

GovChat, the South African civic engagement technology platform, has announced a partnership with the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) to support the digitisation of the COVID-19 social relief grant application process. The partnership with GovChat could enable millions of unemployed citizens to access the largest social security programme on the African continent directly from their mobile devices. GovChat’s platform – accessed through WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, SMS and USSDchannels – is said to provide a secure application portal for pre-qualifying citizens, automating filling, verification and applicant assessment. The automation of processes, using the GovChat artificial intelligence tools, enhances the agency’s productivity and allows them to respond to more application...

Politics

Microsoft Now Blocks Reply-All Email Storms

wazup May 11, 2020 Comments Closed 252 views

Sourced from My Smart Choice Microsoft is rolling out a new reply-all protection feature for Office 365 and Exchange Online. This new feature is designed to prevent email storms when hundreds or thousands of people start replying to an email thread after someone forgets to BCC everyone or a distribution list was misconfigured. Something that has happened to everyone at least once – where for days on end, people are still replying to the thread “Please take me off CC.” This new block feature is intended to benefit large organizations and is initially being rolled out to detect 10 reply-all emails to over 5000 recipients within 60 minutes. “Over time, as we gather usage telemetry and customer feedback, we expect to tweak, fine-tune, and enhance the Reply All Storm Protection feature to make ...

Politics

Cell C Faces Potential Job Cuts

wazup May 11, 2020 Comments Closed 322 views

Image sourced from Town Press South African network provider, Cell C says that it’s reevaluating some of the jobs at executive and management level – this process could deem certain positions redundant and ultimately result in job cuts. “In early March 2020, Cell C initiated a consultation process in terms of section 189A (2) of the Labour Relations Act 66 of 1995, specifically at a senior manager and executive level, and advised employees of the possibility of redundancy of certain positions and contemplated retrenchments,” says Cell C to My Broadband. The telecoms provider then went on to say that the process is still underway and it’s not yet sure how many positions will be cut. /* custom css */ .tdi_3_b38.td-a-rec-img{ text-align: left; }.tdi_3_b38.td-a-rec-img img{ margin: 0 auto 0 0;...

Politics

A Future Reimagined for Africa Post-Pandemic

wazup May 11, 2020 Comments Closed 299 views

Sourced from Redbubble and iStock. In a rare television broadcast Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, described the COVID-19 pandemic as “Germany’s biggest challenge since the Second World War”. It has indeed proved to be a crisis of global proportion with material implications for the economies and livelihoods of all. Governments across the globe have locked down cities, towns, villages and townships to curb the spread of the virus. Massive fiscal stimuli have been enacted to cushion the economic and humanitarian impact of the pandemic. The World Bank and International Monetary Fund have set aside a large quantum of emergency financial support for countries to tap into. African countries have implemented strong containment measures to avoid further spread of COVID-19. For countries in W...

Politics

AirtelTigo and Opera Offer Free Data and Browsing in Ghana

wazup May 11, 2020 Comments Closed 258 views

Sourced from Comms MEA Ghanaian telecom operator, AirtelTigo has announced its partnership with popular mobile web browser Opera Mini to offer free data and browsing on the Opera Mini browser and Opera News App for three months. Through the partnership, both new and existing AirtelTigo customers will automatically receive free 50MB data every day to access the latest local and global news anytime. The Opera Mini and Opera News Apps work on all Android mobile devices. Both mobile applications incorporate the unique data compression technology of Opera, capable of pre-processing and reducing the amount of data from a website before it reaches the users’ phones, saving up to 90 per cent of mobile data. /* custom css */ .tdi_3_7b3.td-a-rec-img{ text-align: left; }.tdi_3_7b3.td-a-rec-img img{ m...

Politics

Nigerian Man Receives Death Sentence via Zoom – A Look at the Future of Correctional Systems?

wazup May 10, 2020 Comments Closed 232 views

Sourced from Innovation in Politics. A man in Nigeria was sentenced to death via the popular video conferencing app Zoom this week – this after courts in Nigeria turn to video-conferencing platforms as the country struggles under nationwide lockdown due to COVID-19. CNN reports that in a virtual court hearing on Monday, Olalekan Hameed was found guilty of murdering his mother’s employer in 2018 and had been sentenced to death by hanging, a practice still prevalent in the country’s penal system. A judge at a court in Lagos delivered the ruling to Hameed, who appeared remotely from prison via Zoom, along with his lawyer and prosecutors who also joined the hearing remotely, justice ministry spokesman Kayode Oyekanmi told CNN. Hameed has since denied the charge and remains in prison, says Oyek...

Politics

Remote Connections Up 44% During Lockdown in Nigeria

wazup May 9, 2020 Comments Closed 296 views

Sourced from AFP. Many organisations across Africa are finding themselves transitioning their workforce to remote work at home as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. IT departments are re-architecting their environments on the fly to allow for remote access. Now, according to a report by Serianu, Pan-African based Cybersecurity and Business consulting firm, “in Nigeria, remote connections have increased by around 44% since the onset of COVID-19 with the highest increase realized in March 2020 after the president declared lockdown in key cities. Lagos is, by a vast amount, the most affected state, hosting over 40% of the identified vulnerable connections put at over 4,500 vulnerable connections.” The Guardian Nigeria goes on to note that the report marks increased usage of these services cau...

Politics

Ericsson Appoints New Head of South and East Africa

wazup May 9, 2020 Comments Closed 262 views

Ericsson has announced the appointment of Todd Ashton as the Vice President and Head of Ericsson South & East Africa. Prior to assuming this role, Ashton served as the Head of Ericsson Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh and Global Customer Unit Axiata within Ericsson in Market Area South East Asia Oceania & India. “We are committed to our customers’ success in Africa while also building a strong position in the continent as the market evolves to 4G and 5G. Throughout his years of experience, Todd has demonstrated strong leadership and has been successful in driving growth in very competitive environments. I am confident Todd has the right background and experience to lead the customer unit and deliver on our customers’ commitments,” says Fadi Pharaon, President of Ericsson Middle E...