Blog Archive

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America’s internet wasn’t prepared for online school

It’s not uncommon for households in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, to lose internet for a full day. The last time it happened, back in the spring, Christina Rothermel-Branham connected herself (a professor at Northeastern State University, teaching online) and her son (a kindergartener at Heritage Elementary, learning online) to the hotspot on her phone. Luckily, nobody had a Zoom call scheduled that day; worksheets and YouTube videos proceeded as planned.

Rothermel-Branham’s son is now in first grade. He has multiple Zoom sessions per day and takes online classes through Outschool. She doesn’t know what they’ll do the next time their house loses service. She hopes her phone’s hotspot will be able to handle both of their video calls at once — but she’s worried that it won’t.

Rothermel-Branham’s son is one of the millions of students around the US who are currently taking some (or all) of their classes remotely. That’s been

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Internet
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Elon Musk Says SpaceX Closer to Testing Starlink Internet in U.S. After Launch of 60 More Satellites

SpaceX has successfully launched 60 more “Starlink” satellites into orbit as part of its mission to beam high-speed internet back to Earth.

The Elon Musk-led company released multiple videos of the takeoff to social media this morning, which took place at Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 7:29 a.m. EDT. Liftoff yesterday was scrubbed due to unfavorable weather.

Blasted into space onboard a Falcon9 reusable rocket, the satellites will be added to a constellation of satellites that is currently more than 400-strong.

“Falcon 9 launches 60 Starlink satellites to orbit, completing SpaceX‘s 43rd flight of a previously flown rocket booster,” the company tweeted earlier today.

Footage uploaded by the company included the Falcon9’s first stage landing on the “Of Course I Still Love You,” a droneship platform that’s stationed in the Atlantic Ocean. The touchdown happened within 8 minutes and 30 seconds, the

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Technology
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From prison to programming: How coding can help inmates find a path out of crime

Jason Jones spent nearly 14 years in prison. After learning to code while still incarcerated, today he uses his experience to teach others how coding can improve social mobility and reduce recidivism.

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Jason Jones, remote instruction manager at The Last Mile.

Image: The Last Mile

As someone who spent the majority of his young adult life in prison, Jason Jones knows firsthand the difficulties of trying to re-enter society after incarceration.

Must-read developer content

Jones was swept into gang activity at a young age following a difficult childhood, which culminated in him being sentenced to 13 and a half years in prison in 2005. It wasn’t until 2014, while spending time at California’s San Quentin Prison, that Jones was introduced to computer programming through a friend, who advised the then 30-year-old Jones that turning his efforts to coding might offer a practical means of staying out of trouble.

“I had

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Programming
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‘Shopping around is impossible when you don’t have a computer’

Christine Chapman and Stephen HarrisImage copyright
Stephen Harris

Image caption

Christine Chapman was helped by her brother-in-law Stephen Harris

With little more income than the state pension, Christine Chapman is careful with her money.

The 70-year-old keeps paperwork meticulously in a filing cabinet and knows what is coming in and going out.

Her bills were cut by hundreds of pounds a year, simply by switching insurance, phone and mobile suppliers.

It all sounds like an advert for competition and the benefits of shopping around.

But Mrs Chapman was lucky.

Misplaced trust?

The widow, from County Durham, does not have a computer and does not know how to operate one. Her smartphone is only used for calls and messages to family and friends. She had no way of shopping around for better deals.

What she does have is a caring brother-in-law who taught IT and, after a conversation at a family gathering, realised Mrs Chapman

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Computer
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Chamath Palihapitiya responds to Coinbase controversy: Get a soapbox

  • Well-known venture investor Chamath Palihapitiya said on his “All-In” podcast that employees should be able to have free-form debate on any topic, on one condition — they should have to speak from a physical soapbox.
  • The investor was responding to the Coinbase controversy where Brian Armstrong told employees in a memo last week that politics and social causes had no place at the company.
  • “You put the soapbox someplace — in a safe space — where you can go and you can talk and people who want to listen will listen, and people who need to work can work, and people who don’t want to listen don’t have to be forced to listen,” Palihapitiya said on the podcast.
  • Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

The head of Coinbase, Brian Armstrong, created a firestorm in tech last week when he told employees in a memo to leave their politics and

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Technology
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Polestar 2 EV recalled in China, Europe over software defect

  • Geely, the parent company behind Polestar and Volvo, recalled about 2,200 Polestar 2s over a software defect, Reuters reported via Swedish financial paper Dagens Industri.
  • The defect can cause the cars to lose power and stop running, even while they are driving.
  • The recall only affects Polestar 2s in China and certain parts of Europe. Cars in the US and Canada are not affected.
  • Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

The brand-new, Tesla-challenging Polestar 2 EV just got hit with a major recall. Don’t worry if you’re in North America, though. The recall is only for cars in China and certain parts of Europe.

Geely, the parent company of Polestar and Volvo, recalled about 2,200 2s over a software defect, Reuters reported on Saturday, citing Swedish financial outlet Dagens Industri. The defect caused “several cars” to lose power and stop running, even while they were being driven.

All Polestar

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Software
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Ignite your kid’s love of programming for 50% off at codeSpark

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codeSpark

It’s true that it’s almost never too early to help your kids learn to code. codeSpark is an app that teaches the rudiments of programming to kids starting as young as 5 years old, thanks to a wealth of games and activities that don’t even require reading skills. For the month of October, you can start a subscription to codeSpark Academy for 50% off — $5 for the first month — when you use promo code TREAT50. 

codeSpark is available for Android and iOS devices and plays great on a tablet, but you can also sign into the academy in any web browser. It includes over 1,000 activities, and every game teaches fundamental coding concepts, which can help them grasp the logic of programming, math and reading skills. codeSpark says that the activities have been carefully designed with gender-neutral characters and an interface that doesn’t require any reading,

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Programming
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England lost 16,000 new coronavirus cases, blames computer glitch

The glitch was no mere rounding error in the government’s accounting, but another serious stumble at a crucial moment, when the British government is daily trying to decide where to tighten regional lockdowns to slow a second wave of the virus.

After the error was spotted and the lost cases accounted for, the government’s report of new daily infections nearly doubled — from 12,872 on Saturday to 22,961 on Sunday — sparking renewed angst among officials in London and England’s north, where most of the new cases were centered.

Michael Brodie, the interim head of Public Health England, said the issue was identified late Friday in the computer process that communicates positive results from labs to the country’s reporting dashboards. Some data files containing positive results had exceeded the maximum file size, he said, according to the BBC.

“We fully understand the concern this may cause,” Brodie added, “and further

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Computer
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Verizon 4G LTE-based Home Internet maximizes rural availability edge

  • Verizon extended the availability of its 4G LTE-based Home Internet, and is now available in 189 markets
  • This allows Verizon to further capitalize on its advantage over the other major US wireless carriers in offering rural 4G.
  • Insider Intelligence publishes hundreds of insights, charts, and forecasts on the Connectivity & Tech industry with the Connectivity & Tech Briefing. You can learn more about subscribing here.

Verizon announced that its 4G LTE-based Home Internet service is now available in 189 markets across 48 states. In July 2020, Verizon began rolling out the service in a handful of markets across the Southeast.

4G cellular availability in remote US areas by carrier

Verizon extended the availability of its 4G LTE-based home broadband.

Business Insider Intelligence


The service will cost $60 per month for non-Verizon wireless customers, or $40 per month for those with Verizon mobile plans (but only if they already pay more than $30 per month). Verizon promises typical download speeds

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Internet
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Wishing Trump’s death from COVID-19 not allowed on Facebook, Twitter

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President Trump’s Twitter page.


Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images

As news of President Donald Trump’s positive COVID-19 diagnosis spread, social media companies warned their users that content wishing for the president to die won’t be allowed on their platforms.

After the president revealed on Thursday that he and first lad Melania Trump had tested positive for the virus, many people took to social media to wish him a speedy recovery, but many others said they hoped for the opposite outcome.

A Facebook spokesperson Friday such post violate the social media giant’s user policies and will be removed.

“To be clear, Facebook is removing death threats or content targeted directly at the president that wishes him death, including comments on his posts or his page – in addition

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Technology