December 14, 2018: Friday News Roundup
Last night was Udemy’s holiday party, so forgive us if we’re dragging our feet a little today. But the news must go on!
Ghosting At Work Is Now Big Enough That It Caught The Fed’s Attention
If you didn’t know before, this is a sure sign we’re in a job-seeker’s market in the U.S. People are failing to show up for interviews, failing to show up for their first day at a new job after getting hired, or just failing to notify their manager and colleagues that they’re not coming to work anymore. In other words, as this article puts it, “Ghosting at work has officially arrived.”
The Ancient Origins of Automation
If things are kinda slow around your office leading up to the holidays, spend some time digging into this long-ish dive into the origins of automation. For example, did you know the word “automation” first appeared in Homer’s Iliad “recounting the marvelous self-moving and intelligent machines fabricated by Hephaestus, the blacksmith god of invention and technology.”
Evelyn Berezin, 93, Dies; Built the First True Word Processor
Too many female computing pioneers have been glossed over by history. Consider Evelyn Berezin, who was a tech startup founder way back in 1969. She launched her company to sell the word-processing machine she herself designed, dubbed “the Data Secretary.”
The World’s Top 50 Women In Tech
The current generation of female tech visionaries aren’t going to let themselves be lost to history! The achievements of Evelyn Berezin may have been largely overlooked, but we’ll try to reset the balance with this list of forward-thinking “Moguls, Founders, Engineers, Innovators and Warriors… who happen to be women.” Keep an eye on what these women do next.
The U.S. Army Has A New Plan To Recruit Gamers
Simulations have long been a staple of military training, so perhaps it’s no surprise that today’s top gamers are being targeted by U.S. Army recruiters. As this article explains, soldiers on deployment spend a lot of their downtime playing Xbox 360, and now the Army is “sending active or reserve soldiers who are high-level gamers to esports tournaments around the country” to try to enlist others.