technology

Wednesday March 13, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday March 13, 2019

Ontario to ban cellphones from classrooms starting next school year

Ontario students will no longer be able to use their cellphones in the classroom next September, as Premier Doug Ford makes good on a populist campaign promise.

August 24, 2018

CTV News Toronto has confirmed that the Ministry of Education will change the code of conduct for students and teachers, implementing a ban on smartphone use during class time but allowing local school boards to decide how to enforce the new rules.

“Ontario’s students need to be able to focus on their learning – not their cellphones,” Education Minister Lisa Thompson said in a statement.

“By banning cellphone use that distracts from learning, we are helping students to focus on acquiring the foundational skills they need like reading, writing and math.”

The new student code of conduct is expected to have strict guidelines for cellphone use, including preventing students from placing their phones face-down on desks, even with the ringer set to silent.

September 3, 2013

Students would be allowed to bring their phones into the classroom, the government said, but usage would be reserved for educational and emergency situations.

“Obviously for emergency purposes, for medical purposes and for specific courses that require technological platforms – they’d be permissible,” Progressive Conservative MPP Stephen Lecce told CTV News Toronto.

The government said teachers and parents overwhelmingly supported banning cellphone use during telephone town halls and surveys conducted last fall, in which 97 per cent of the 35,000 respondents advocated for the move.

Among the feedback sent to the ministry of education, educators complained that phones were not only a distraction but that students were also using them to cheat and share unflattering photographs of teachers on social media.

September 17, 2010

Ministry of education officials, speaking on background, said students wouldn’t be expected to lock up their phones and while enforcement will be difficult, it will be left up to school boards.

“Parents deserve to know it, students deserve to know it for their own protection, and to be fair, educators want how they’re going to have that enforceability,” Lecce said.

While Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner agrees that cellphones can be a distraction, he is critical of what he describes as the government’s “top-down regulation” approach.

“The Ford government is just duplicating powers that educators already have to control cellphone use in their classrooms. Instead of empowering schools to create reasonable cell phone use policies, Ford is promising a province-wide ban that is impossible to enforce,” Schreiner said in a statement. (Source: CTV News)  

 

Wednesday March 21, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday March 21, 2018

‘Utterly horrifying’: ex-Facebook insider says covert data harvesting was routine

Hundreds of millions of Facebook users are likely to have had their private information harvested by companies that exploited the same terms as the firm that collected data and passed it on to Cambridge Analytica, according to a new whistleblower.

September 17, 2015

Sandy Parakilas, the platform operations manager at Facebook responsible for policing data breaches by third-party software developers between 2011 and 2012, told the Guardian he warned senior executives at the company that its lax approach to data protection risked a major breach.

Where’s Zuck? Facebook CEO silent as data harvesting scandal unfolds

“My concerns were that all of the data that left Facebook servers to developers could not be monitored by Facebook, so we had no idea what developers were doing with the data,” he said.

Parakilas said Facebook had terms of service and settings that “people didn’t read or understand” and the company did not use its enforcement mechanisms, including audits of external developers, to ensure data was not being misused.

Parakilas, whose job was to investigate data breaches by developers similar to the one later suspected of Global Science Research, which harvested tens of millions of Facebook profiles and provided the data to Cambridge Analytica, said the slew of recent disclosures had left him disappointed with his superiors for not heeding his warnings.

“It has been painful watching,” he said, “because I know that they could have prevented it.” (Source: The Guardian) 

 

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Friday June 23, 2017

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday June 23, 2017

Sears Canada to close 59 stores, lay off 2,900 in restructuring

Sears Canada plans to close 59 stores and eliminate 2,900 jobs across the country as part of a court-supervised restructuring process.

Shares in Sears Canada were halted Thursday morning after the retailer applied for and was granted protection from its creditors under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act — the law that covers insolvency proceedings.

The move gives the retailer 30 days to restructure itself, which includes $450 million in debtor-in-possession financing to fund the company while it restructures, a process that will include closing dozens of locations and laying off thousands of workers.

The chain will axe 20 full Sears stores, 15 Sears Home Stores, all 10 outlet stores and 14 Sears Hometown stores — roughly one-third of its current retail footprint.

All other Sears locations will remain open, the chain said, and the company “plans to continue to operate a large number of stores, continue to maintain significant employment, and to service its customers across Canada,” Sears said in a court filing.

About 500 office positions at the company were to be eliminated immediately. The remainder of the job losses will come as Sears closes stores. As of May 30, the company employed approximately 17,000 people, with 10,500 in part-time positions and the rest working full-time.

Trading in the shares was halted before the Toronto Stock Exchange opened on Thursday, pending news. Minutes later, Sears Canada announced its plan in a press release. (Source: CBC) 

 

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Saturday May 20, 2017

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday May 20, 2017

Americans are camping in record numbers, but they still want Wi-Fi

According to a report released by Kampgrounds of America (KOA), a group of privately held campgrounds, more and more Americans are now spending their leisure time camping.

July 2, 2008

Since 2014, the percentage of campers of who say that they take three or more camping trips a year has increased by more than 36 percent. Infrequent campers (those who go just once a year) have simultaneously dropped by 10 percent. In 2017 half of all campers surveyed said that they’re planning to spend even more time camping this year.

More than half of millennials surveyed (51 percent) said that they planned to go camping more often in 2017. Millennials also mark the age range to most enjoy the activity in large groups–10 or more travelers.

But neither millennials – nor campers in general – are completely cutting the cord. According to the study, 95 percent of people who go camping bring some sort of technology with them while 37 percent of campers said that some sort of tech was actually required for their trip in order to spend more time outdoors. About half of survey respondents indicated that least free Wi-Fi was a big factor when deciding where to stay.

And when it comes to sleeping, conventional tents were the most popular, according to the study. But the number of campers electing to use RVs or cabins is also increasing. (Source: Fox News) http://www.foxnews.com/travel/2017/03/21/americans-are-camping-in-record-numbers-but-still-want-wi-fi.html

long weekend, holiday, camping, family, campground, gadgets, devices, social media, Internet, technology, tradition, vacation, media, laptops, addiction (Source: Fox News)

The Western Star, Corner Brook, Nfld., May 23, 2017

Tuesday April 4, 2017

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday April 4, 2017

Bombardier CEO admits ‘bad job’ communicating pay increases

Bombardier did “a bad job” explaining its decision to raise executive compensation, but the company has listened to the public and is now ready to turn the page, CEO Alain Bellemare says.

October 13, 2016

In an interview, Bellemare acknowledged that Bombardier (TSX:BBD.B) underestimated the anger that would erupt over the pay hikes, which were to come as it was issuing pink slips to thousands of employees while receiving federal and provincial assistance.

“It’s all on us at Bombardier,” he said. “The message here is we did listen, we paid attention, we care.”

Bellemare announced late Sunday that he has asked Bombardier’s board of directors to delay the payment of more than half of this year’s total planned compensation for six executive officers, including himself, by one year — until 2020. The compensation would be paid as long as certain objectives that haven’t changed are met by that time.

The remuneration is required to attract top talent to turn around the company’s fortunes, which in turn benefits employees and shareholders alike, he said.

Last week, the company issued a proxy circular showing that Bellemare and five others were in line for a nearly 50 per cent increase in compensation, most of which was to be granted in 2019. The disclosure stoked fierce outcry that lasted for days, including a weekend protest at Bombardier’s headquarters in Montreal.

Federal Economic Development Minister Navdeep Bains said Monday that like many Canadians, he was disappointed by the Bombardier executive pay raises, but it seems like the company is trying to address those concerns.

“Clearly there’s a recognition that they need to make changes, that they need to approach this differently,” Bains said, striking a different message from the one offered by the prime minister last week.

Asked how he can justify the $372.5-million federal loan for Bombardier’s CSeries and Global 7000 aircraft programs, Justin Trudeau said his government respects “the free market and the choices that companies will make.” (Source: CTV news)