Techlife News

oklahoma city-based paycom software being added to s&p 500

Oklahoma City-based information technology company Paycom Software Inc., is being added to the S&P 500. S&P Dow Jones Indices announced Wednesday that Paycom will replace Wellcare Health Plans on Jan. 28 as Wellcare is being purchased by fellow S&P 500 member Centene Corp. Paycom Software provides cloud-based human capital management software services and becomes the fifth Oklahoma-based company on the index that includes most of the largest U.S. publicly traded companies. Paycom will join Oklahoma companies Helmerich & Payne, ONEOK, Williams Cos., and Devon Energy on the S&P index.…

sale ending soon? how online stores trick you into buying

Sale ending soon! Only two left! This is a hot item! If you’ve shopped online, you’ve probably seen those messages. What you may not realize: They’re designed to make you spend more. Online stores have adopted tricks used for years by infomercials and home shopping networks. The only difference now: online stores are trying to get you to click the buy button. After reviewing 200 of the top shopping sites, including Amazon, eBay and Macys.com, a study by the University of Michigan’s School of Information found that all the sites had an average of 19 features that could encourage impulse buying, such as limited-time discounts and wording that made an item seem like it was almost out of stock. The best way to combat them? Being aware of the tactics retailers use. “The onus is…

us official: china steals ‘massive amounts’ of data in west

China is stealing “massive amounts” of data from Western companies and Iran has stolen data from some 200 universities, the top U.S. cybersecurity diplomat said Wednesday . Robert Strayer, deputy assistant secretary of state for cyber and international communications, said in Paris that the data theft “happens on a regular basis.” Over the last few years, the Chinese “compromised the largest of the global service providers and cloud providers ... and they use that to gain access to the corporate databases of major, large companies,” he told reporters. The stolen data is “in some cases” given to private industry within China “to compete against” the companies they stole from, Strayer said. “So that happens on a regular basis,” he added. Strayer was in Paris along with a Justice Department official to convince France not…

first space-baked cookies took 2 hours in experimental oven

The results are finally in for the first chocolate chip cookie bake-off in space. While looking more or less normal, the best cookies required two hours of baking time last month up at the International Space Station. It takes far less time on Earth, under 20 minutes. And how do they taste? No one knows. Still sealed in individual baking pouches and packed in their spaceflight container, the cookies remain frozen in a Houston-area lab after splashing down two weeks ago in a SpaceX capsule. They were the first food baked in space from raw ingredients. The makers of the oven expected a difference in baking time in space, but not that big. “There’s still a lot to look into to figure out really what’s driving that difference, but definitely a cool result,” Mary Murphy,…

first stage of extradition hearing for top huawei exec ends

A Canadian judge said she will announce her decision at a later date after she ended the first phase of an extradition hearing that will decide whether a top executive of Chinese tech giant Huawei is sent to the United States. This week’s hearings dealt with the question of whether the U.S. charges against Meng Wanzhou, the daughter of Huawei’s founder, are crimes in Canada as well. Her lawyers argued the case is really about U.S. sanctions against Iran, not a fraud case. They maintain since Canada does not have similar sanctions against Iran, no fraud occurred. Canada arrested Huawei’s chief financial officer in December 2018 at Vancouver’s airport at the request of the U.S. as she was changing flights. The U.S. Justice Department accuses Huawei of using a Hong Kong shell company…

google ceo calls for regulation of artificial intelligence

Google’s chief executive called this week for a balanced approach to regulating artificial intelligence, telling a European audience that the technology brings benefits but also “negative consequences.” Sundar Pichai’s comments come as lawmakers and governments seriously consider putting limits on how artificial intelligence is used. “There is no question in my mind that artificial intelligence needs to be regulated. The question is how best to approach this,” Pichai said, according to a transcript of his speech at a Brussel-based think tank. He noted that there’s an important role for governments to play and that as the European Union and the U.S. start drawing up their own approaches to regulation, “international alignment” of any eventual rules will be critical. He did not provide specific proposals. Pichai spoke on the same day he was scheduled to…