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Education

President Trump Just Donated His Salary to the Education Department. Here’s How Much He Wants to Cut From It

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

Image result for President Trump Just Donated His Salary to the Education Department. Here's How Much He Wants to Cut From It

Before he entered the Oval Office in January,Donald Trump pledged to donate his yearly salary of $400,000 that he earns serving as President of the United States.

Fulfilling that promise for the second time this year, Trump donated his second-quarter salary of $100,000 to the Department of Education on Wednesday to help fund a STEM camp, which teaches young students about science, technology, engineering and math.

But the gift is just a small fraction of what the department would lose under Trump’s proposed budget. Though Trump’s 2018 budget will not be enacted without congressional approval, his proposal would cut the education department’s spending by $9.2 billion — or about 13.5% — which would include significant slashes to student loan programs.

A similar situation occurred in April when Trump donated his first-quarter salary to the Department of Interior, which stands to lose 12%, of about $1.6 billion, of its funding under Trump’s proposed budget. His $78,333.32 gift back then is helping fund the National Park Service’s battlefield preservation efforts, which is currently $229 million behind in deferred maintenance costs.

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos released a statement Wednesday thanking Trump for his donation, lauding “his commitment to our nation’s students and to reforming education in America so that every child, no matter their ZIP code, has access to a high quality education.”

“We want to encourage as many children as possible to explore STEM fields in the hope that many develop a passion for these fields,” she added.

It is unclear what the STEM camp will look like, but DeVos mentioned a reading event she hosted with Trump’s daughter Ivanka, special assistant to the president, at a Smithsonian museum in Washington D.C. aimed at encouraging young girls to learn more about STEM subjects.

Representatives from the White House and the Department of Education did not immediately respond to request for comment.

[“Source-time”]

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Gadgets News

Apple Wants to Rock the Market With HomePod, Faces Challenges

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

Apple Wants to Rock the Market With HomePod, Faces Challenges

Apple’s new HomePod speaker may be music to the ears of its loyal fans, but how much it can crank up volume in the smart speaker market remains to be heard.

Apple unveiled its long-awaited HomePod at its annual developers conference taking place this week in the heart of Silicon Valley, enticing lovers of its products with a high-end offering in a market dominated by lower-priced devices from Amazon and Google.

Analysts are yet to be convinced that HomePod will rock the smart speaker market the way iPhones came to rule the smartphone world and iPods dominated MP3 players.

“If we are comparing this to Apple’s past successes, it doesn’t fit that model,” said analyst Rob Enderle of Enderle Group.

“This product is much more of a me-too offering.”

There was no overwhelming differentiation in HomePod, according to the analyst. But he saw a big negative – it is more expensive.

HomePod, infused with machine smarts by Siri digital assistant, will be priced at $349 when it begins shipping in December in the United States, Australia and Britain.

HomePod will take on Amazon Echo and Google Home, which have momentum in the arena of voice-controlled speakers capable of controlling smart appliances, fetching content from the internet and more.

Amazon sells Echo devices for $179 (roughly Rs. 11,590), and smaller “Dot” versions for $50 (roughly Rs. 3,230). Google sells Home for $130 (roughly Rs. 8,370), promoting the smart speakers with discounts.

HomePod’s tune
Apple played up the rich speaker quality of HomePod, and synched it with the company’s music service that boasts 27 million subscribers.

Apple vice president Phil Schiller said the company’s Siri team tuned the virtual assistant as a “musicologist” that learns the tastes of listeners and gets songs from the internet cloud.

The speaker has the “power to rock the house,” according to Schiller, and the aim is to make HomePod a voice-commanded assistant for news, messages, weather, traffic, home controls and more.

“Apple’s base should like it, because they are committed to the ecosystem,” Enderle said of HomePod.
“If you are paying the extra money because Apple is requiring you to do so to access your stuff, that is the Apple tax and it is the kind of thing that people don’t like.”

HomePod combined elements of Echo and Sonos smart speakers, known for rich sound quality, according to Reticle Research principal analyst Ross Rubin.

Apple lovers already tend to be “premium product buyers,” and may not flinch at paying more for what they believe is a superior quality product, said Gartner analyst Brian Blau.

Just a glimpse
Blau suspected Apple only gave a glimpse at its vision for HomePod, noting its potential to be a command center for smart houses and to mesh with iPhones, iPads, online services and more.

“We have to imagine there is going to be more there,” Blau said.

“Is it going to be an Echo killer? A Google Home killer? We are going to have to wait and see.

Apple be saving some insights into HomePod for later this year when it is expected to unveil a tenth-anniversary edition of the iPhone.

Since HomePod will not hit the market until December, it is unlikely to catch much of the year-end holiday shopping wave and post big sales this year, according to Blau.

“I think, over time, they are going to do just fine in this category but it is going to take a while,” the analyst said.

“I don’t think it will be the next iPhone,” Blau said of HomePod, “but, Apple could gain share and be a leader.”

In a blog post Technalysis Research founder Bob O’Donnell depicted Apple’s latest product news as an affirmation that the company has not fallen behind competitors and is working to take advantage of potentially exciting new technologies.

But O’Donnell also expressed skepticism on Apple’s ability to dominate this new segment.

“Yes, some songs may sound pleasing, but for true audiophiles who actually want to hear what the artist and producer intended, Apple’s positioning of the HomePod as super high-quality speaker is going to be a very tough sell,” O’Donnell said in a blog post.

 

 

[“source-gadgets.ndtv”]

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News Update

Putin wants his spies to work closer with US intelligence agencies

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

President Vladimir Putin says he wants to work towards “restoring dialogue” between Russian and US intelligence agencies.

“It’s absolutely clear that in the area of counterterrorism all relevant governments and international groups should work together,” he said.

“It’s in everyone’s interest to resume dialogue between the intelligence agencies of the United States and other members of NATO.”

At the same time he complained that NATO “is constantly provoking us and trying to draw us into confrontation”.

And he said last year the activities of more than 400 foreign special agents had been stopped.

US defence secretary James Mattis says there is “very little doubt” that Russia has interfered or attempted to interfere in a number of elections.

But in November President Donald Trump praised his Russian counterpart for being “very smart” for not engaging in a tit-for-tat row with the US after the expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats accused of spying.

And both Mr Putin and Mr Trump have played down a dossier compiled by a former MI6 agent that emerged in January, shortly before he was due to enter the White House.

In the document, former British spy Christopher Steele alleged that the Kremlin colluded with Mr Trump’s presidential campaign and that the Russian security services had material that could be used to blackmail him.

Mr Trump has an uneasy relationship with his own intelligence services after accusing them of allowing the release of what he called “false information”.

Rather than blame Moscow, Mr Trump has directed his anger at those doing the leaking.

“The spotlight has finally been put on the low-life leakers! They will be caught!,” he tweeted.

Russia’s defence minister has warned Washington not to try to negotiate with Moscow “from a position of strength” ahead of the first meeting between their military chiefs since Mr Trump took office.

“We are ready to restore co-operation with the Pentagon,” Sergei Shoigu said in a statement.

“But attempts to build a dialogue from a position of strength in relation to Russia have no prospects.”

Mr Shoigu was responding to a comment to NATO by Mr Mattis when he said Washington wanted to make sure its diplomats had the upper hand in any talks with Russia.

Meanwhile, Chancellor Angela Merkel has told a parliamentary committee examining alleged US surveillance in Germany that “spying among friends” is unacceptable.

[Source:- skynews]

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News Update

Kremlin says it wants apology from Fox News over Putin comments

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a news conference after a meeting with his Moldovan counterpart Igor Dodon at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, January 17, 2017. REUTERS/Sergei Ilnitsky/Pool

The Kremlin said on Monday it wanted an apology from Fox News over what it said were “unacceptable” comments one of the channel’s presenters made about Russian President Vladimir Putin in an interview with U.S. counterpart Donald Trump.

Fox News host Bill O’Reilly described Putin as “a killer” in the interview with Trump as he tried to press the U.S. president to explain more fully why he respected his Russian counterpart. O’Reilly did not say who he thought Putin had killed.

“We consider such words from the Fox TV company to be unacceptable and insulting, and honestly speaking, we would prefer to get an apology from such a respected TV company,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call.

Fox News and O’Reilly did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Trump’s views on Putin are closely scrutinized in the United States, where U.S. intelligence agencies have accused Moscow of having sponsored computer hacking to help Trump win office, and critics say he is too complimentary about the Russian leader.

Trump, when commenting on the allegations against Putin in the same interview, questioned how “innocent” the United States itself was, saying it had made a lot of its own mistakes. That irritated some congressional Republicans who said there was no comparison between how Russian and U.S. politicians behaved.

Asked in an interview on Sunday to clarify those comments, Trump told Westwood One Sports Radio: “Well, I don’t have to clarify it. The question was do you respect him — he’s a head of a major country.”

Putin, in his 17th year of dominating the Russian political landscape, is accused by some Kremlin critics of ordering the killing of opponents. Putin and the Kremlin have repeatedly rejected those allegations as politically motivated and false.

Trump, who has said he wants to try to mend battered U.S.-Russia ties and hopes he can get along with Putin, was asked a question about some of those allegations by Fox Business before he won the White House.

In January last year, after a British judge ruled that Putin had “probably” authorized the murder of former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko in London, Trump said he saw no evidence the Russian president was guilty.

“First of all, he says he didn’t do it. Many people say it wasn’t him. So who knows who did it?” Trump said.

[Source:- reuters]

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Education

The government is not about to fudge this: the PM wants proper old-fashioned grammar schools

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

grammar schools

There are clever educational strategies that one might use to finesse the government’s commitment to increasing selection, but they’re unlikely to satisfy Downing Street like “red meat” grammar schools

There are those in education who seem to think that if they close their eyes really tight, the government’s plans to roll out grammar schools across the country will just go away.

They believe that a combination of near-universal opposition from the education sector (it’s almost impossible to find a head or teacher who thinks more selection is a good idea) and within Parliament will result in the idea will be shelved.

I wish it weren’t so, but this is wildly optimistic. The political mechanics of how it will be forced through are not yet clear, but when a prime minister really wants something, it pretty much always happens.

Let’s not forget that the speech in which the grammar school policy was unveiled was Theresa May’s very first on public sector reform in the afterglow of becoming PM. Such landmark speeches are not easily put on the backburner.

No 10 is, I understand, well up for a political scrap, too. They reckon that a year or two of battling the profession and the “liberal elite” on this one will probably play quite well in post-Brexit Britain.

Comprehensive dream

Then there are those within education – especially within the academies and free school movement – who think that they can manage the whole reintroduction of selection in a way that would be a little more palatable to those who remain committed to the comprehensive dream.

They think that they will get away with creating ultra-selective special units for super-bright pupils, probably within multi-academy trusts. Sort of special schools, but for the extremely gifted and talented. These units might not even be schools as we would recognise them with fluid pupil-roll, and students treated on a need-by-need basis.

This idea is one iteration of the “non-binary” selective system that the DfE – not keen on the idea of more grammar schools – is keen to promote as a way of placating the opposition that has grown up around more selection.

One problem. This isn’t going to cut the mustard in No 10: not after Theresa May stood up and announced the policy; not after the story was briefed in the Sunday Telegraph as the return to grammars.

No, Number 10 and its senior people are going to want some red meat for the Tory faithful – something that looks, sounds and smells like a grammar school in every area.

So when the government’s response to the Green Paper is published in (I understand) March, that’s what you can expect. It may well feature some of the fuzzy-around-the-edges, non-binary options, but there’ll be plans for proper old-fashioned grammar schools, too.

Best get used to it.

[Source:- tes]

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Internet

AT&T Wants to Make Every Telephone Pole an Ultra-Fast Wireless Hotspot

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

AT&T Wants to Make Every Telephone Pole an Ultra-Fast Wireless Hotspot

AT&T says it plans to start testing a technology next year that could ultimately blanket the country in ultra-fast wireless Internet – without the need for expensive cell towers.

The project, known as AirGig, promises speeds that are many hundreds of times faster than what consumers currently get with their mobile data connections. And it stands to be a lot cheaper to deploy, because AT&T’s new solution piggybacks on infrastructure that’s decades old: Electricity lines.

AirGig doesn’t transmit Internet signals through the power cables themselves. But by placing small, inexpensive antennas on top of utility poles, AT&T can create a string of access points. This new kind of Internet “cable” follows the path of the electricity lines as they wind their way through dense urban areas and hard-to-reach rural regions alike.

Building out Internet networks today is pricey. It often involves digging up streets to lay down cabling, or stringing the wires along utility poles. But as we’ve written before, advances in wireless technology are making it possible to do with airwaves what you could previously only accomplish with expensive fiber optic lines.

 To make AirGig a reality, AT&T would still need to make deals with utility companies to let the wireless carrier install its antennas on their poles. But AT&T seems confident utilities would find the technology attractive, too. It says the AirGig antennas may make their power networks smarter, giving utility operators more information about the health of their infrastructure and alerting them to problems like downed lines or fallen trees.
[Source:- gadgets. ndtv]
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Tech Update

Post-Quantum: the UK startup that wants to save the world from quantum computers

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

Post-Quantum (or PQ) is the British cybersecurity startup that just won’t give up on its strange, unsettling vision of the future. Techworld recently caught up with it for the second or third time since it was founded in early 2009, still toiling away making software designed to cope with a world where quantum computers have smashed today’s encryption to smithereens.

This world doesn’t yet exist but that hasn’t stopped PQ quietly building a suite of secure communications software to cope with the serious consequences for the day it does. It can sound pretty far-fetched at first. Who wants to buy software for a world that is, in all probability, at least 10 or 20 Years hence? It turns out the company’s technology has useful applications today but CEO and explainer Andersen Cheng is very upfront about his experience with wary VCs whom he admits have often glazed over when they first hear the rarefied PQ technical pitch.

[Source:- techworld]

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Tech Update

Kamala Harris Wants to Give States Millions to Update Tech

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

(via geralt/Pixabay)

Elizabeth Warren isn’t the only one fighting to break up big tech.

U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) this week introduced legislation that would earmark millions of dollars for governments to “update and rebuild” their systems.

It also supports the United States Digital Service (USDS), formed in 2014 to offer IT consultation services to federal agencies.

“Americans deserve a government that works for them and that just plain works,” Harris said in a statement. “We must do more to empower our state and local governments to tap into the power of technology to provide seamless, cost-effective services for the 21st century.”

The Digital Service Act promises an annual $50 million to USDS, plus $15 million per year for state and local administrations to invest in “digital services”—small teams of technologists, designers, and civil servants.

The latter would be dispensed as two-year grants, in the amount of $200,000 to $2.5 million per year, according to The Verge.

There are some conditions, though: Harris stipulates that at least 50 percent of each grant should be used “for talent rather than technology,” and that recipients must report their progress before the end of two years.

“The Digital Service Act represents an opportunity to help government move fully into the digital age—to get better outcomes that cost less and, ultimately, rebuild faith and trust in our public institutions,” Jennifer Pahlka, executive director of Code for America and former U.S. Deputy Chief Technology Officer, said.

If passed, this would be “an important step towards making government truly work for all Americans,” she added.

Read more about the history of Harris’s proposed legislation online, as well as the full bill text.

Calls to break up big tech companies like Facebook and Google has spurred a larger discussion about technology competition among Democratic presidential candidates, many of whom support the proposal.

[“source=geek”]

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Gadgets News

ZTE wants to do display holes for the earpiece now

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

The hate for notches and the push for higher screen-to-body ratios are about to create the latest craze of punch holes in the displays. There aren’t smartphones with camera holes in their front panels yet Samsung, Lenovo and Huawei are about to launch a trio of those next month. And now we learn ZTE is looking into holes in the display for tackling another problem – the earpiece. Although, to be fair, Huawei might have thought about that first.

Anyway, going by the latest patent from ZTE, the OEM is trying to reduce the upper bezel and potentially eliminate the need for a notch by making a hole for the earpiece. The patent doesn’t picture the front-facing camera which could mean there isn’t one to begin with – like the ZTE nubia X – or it will hide behind the display.

Unlike the camera pinholes this is still at the patent stages of its development so it will take way longer to materialize. If at all.

[“source=cnbc”]

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