Daily Archives: July 25, 2022

In this photo illustration Google Calendar logo seen displayed on a tablet.

Igor Golovniov | Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images

Google introduced a new feature on Wednesday that will help users keep their Google Calendars free from spam.

Calendar spam occurs when random invitations and appointments appear on Google Calendar, even if the recipient never opened or accepted them. The issue has prompted complaints from users who have been flooded with spam.

The new Google Calendar feature, rolling out now, will only display events on your calendar if the invite comes from a sender you know, like people in your contact list, people you've interacted with before or colleagues. You can also choose to have all invitations appear on your alendar or just the invitations you've accepted. The default option is to show invitations from everyone.

The new feature is rolling out to all users with personal Google accounts, Google Workspace customers and legacy G Suite Basic and Business customers over the next 15 days, so you may not see it just yet.

Here's how to enable the new option once it appears:

You'll still get email invitations from unknown senders, but the events will only appear on their calendars if they are accepted.

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Google adds a new way to block calendar spam. Here's how to use it - CNBC

In 2021, 77% of workers with disabilities said their employer has done a better job supporting them since the pandemic started. Now, companies are building on that support, with significant increases in leadership and boardroom diversity, according to the 2022 Disability Equality Index report from Disability:IN, a global organization advocating for disability inclusion in the workplace.

"People now understand that disability inclusion is not some kind of ADA compliance issue, but it's actually a business imperative," says Ted Kennedy Jr., co-chair of the Disability Equality Index.

"People today want to go to work for companies that they think are doing the right thing, that share their values, and share their vision of the world, [including] making sure that people with disabilities have an equal shot at going to work at that company every single day."

The Disability Equality Index is a benchmarking assessment, where leaders submit their companies to be scored in areas like technology accessibility, employment practices and culture. This year, the report covered 415 companies, including 69 from the Fortune 100, who were then ranked to identify the best places to work for disability inclusion.

With scores of 100, these companies, along with several others, led the pack:

Increased disability inclusion in leadership is one of the most prominent trends in the report, with 126 companies having a senior executive who is internally known as a person with a disability. In 2021, only 99 companies had this kind of representation at the executive level.

The report also found that 6% of companies now have someone who openly identifies as disabled on their corporate board, and 74% of companies have investments with disability-owned businesses, showing not only an internal change, but an effort to diversify outside relationships as well.

According to Jill Houghton, the president and CEO of Disability:IN, the call for disability inclusion at work, coupled with the "global talent shortage" has made it vital for companies "to rethink how they hire, develop and cultivate talent."

Ninety-six percent of companies in the report offer flexible work options, making completing certain tasks more accessible and accommodating. Fifty percent are also investing in new technology to help advance digital accessibility.

Kennedy Jr., who is a pediatric bone cancer survivor and amputee, says that companies that have made the effort to create these equitable workspaces are "making a commitment at the highest level" to support and uplift their disabled talent.

"Individuals with disabilities are extremely adaptive and creative because they've had to be creative and adaptive to different environments, their whole lives," Kennedy Jr. tells CNBC Make It. "There's also much less turnover with employees with disabilities. They're just so grateful to have a job and somebody to give them a chance, that they're going to be extremely loyal."

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Black women are in 'survival mode' at workand company diversity efforts 'fall short'

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Amazon, Starbucks and Google among best places to work for professionals with disabilities - CNBC

Michl Binderbauer, CEO of TAE Technologies

Photo courtesy TAE Technologies

Google and Chevron are part of a $250 million funding raise announced Tuesday for TAE Technologies, a nuclear fusion startup with an unconventional strategy that has now raised a total of $1.2 billion.

Nuclear fusion is often referred to as the holy grail of clean energy because of its promise of generating nearly unlimited emission-free energy without the equivalent harmful, long-lasting radioactive waste that nuclear fission produces.

Nuclear fission is the process by way conventional nuclear power plants generate energy in which a larger atom is split into two smaller atoms, thereby releasing energy. Nuclear fusion reverses that process, with energy produced when two smaller atoms slam together to form one larger atom.

Fusion is the elemental process that powers stars and the sun, but has proven fiendishly difficult to sustain in a controlled reaction on Earth, despite decades of effort.

"TAE and fusion technology as a whole has the potential to be a scalable source of no-carbon energy generation and a key enabler of grid stability as renewables become a greater portion of the energy mix," said Jim Gable, president of Chevron Technology Ventures, the energy company's corporate venture capital arm, in a statement announcing Tuesday's funding round.

Google, the search giant owned by parent company Alphabet, has partnered with TAE since 2014, providing the fusion startup with artificial intelligence and computational power. But Tuesday marks Google's first cash investment in TAE.

A roadmap of the TAE fusion machines.

Courtesy TAE fusion

A Japanese investment company, Sumitomo Corporation of Americas, also participated in the round, and will help TAE bring its fusion technology to the Asia-Pacific region.

TAE was founded in 1998 and aims to have a commercial scale fusion reactor delivering energy to the grid in the early 2030s.

The investment follows an announcement in October that TAE had partnered with Japan's National Institute for Fusion Science. Japan currently gets the majority of its energy from coal, oil and natural gas, according to the International Energy Association. Its geography makes its clean energy goals particularly challenging.

"Unlike many other countries, Japan does not have an abundance of renewable energy resources and its high population density, mountainous terrain, and steep shorelines represent serious barriers to scaling up the ones it does have, particularly as many of its few flatlands are already heavily covered by solar panels," Fatih Birol, executive director at the International Energy Agency, said about the country's energy landscape in 2021. That means Japan needs to focus on energy efficiency and nuclear power, among other sources, he said.

Also on Tuesday, TAE announced a technical milestone: It achieved temperatures greater than 75 million degrees Celsius with its current fusion reactor machine, nicknamed Norman, which is located in Foothill Ranch, Calif., where the company is headquartered. (A photo essay of how Norman works can be found here.)

The funding TAE announced Tuesday will go toward building its next generation fusion machine, called Copernicus, which it says it will have completed by 2025, and which will be located nearby in Irvine, Calif.

A rendering of TAE Technologies' next generation fusion machine, called Copernicus.

Artist rendering from TAE Technologies

The most common machine being built to achieve fusion is a tokamak, a donut-shaped device. That method is being developed at ITER, the multinational collaborative fusion project being constructed in France and pictured below:

Installation of one of the giant 300-tonne magnets that will be used to confine the fusion reaction during the construction of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) on the Cadarache site on September 15, 2021.

Jean-marie Hosatte | Gamma-rapho | Getty Images

TAE is instead using a linear machine, a long thin structure known as a beam-driven field-reversed configuration.

Plasma the most energetic state of matter beyond gas is generated at both ends of the TAE fusion machine and then shot toward the middle, where the plasmas slam together and ignite the fusion reaction.

Another key differentiator of TAE's fusion approach is the fuel it uses. The most common source of fuel for fusion reactionsinvolves deuterium and tritium, which are both forms of hydrogen, themost abundant element in the universe. Deuterium is naturally occurring but tritium has to be produced. (A team at the Idaho National Lab is working on researching supply chains for tritium.)

But TAE's fusion process uses hydrogen-boron (also known as proton-boron or p-B11) as a fuel. Hydrogen-boron does not need to have a tritium processing supply chain, which TAE counts as a benefit. The challenge, however, is that a hydrogen-boron fuel source requires much higher temperatures than a deuterium-tritium fuel source.

"Proton-boron11 fusion is indeed much more difficult than deuterium-tritium fusion forseveral reasons," Nat Fisch,a professor ofastrophysical sciencesat Princeton University, told CNBC. That's because the cross-section for the pB11 fusion reaction is so small it has to be confined longer for the fusion process to start. "At the same time, the temperatures required to reach even this smaller cross section are much larger," Fisch told CNBC. That means it takes a lot of energy to ignite the fusion reaction and then hold the very heated up fuel in place for a long time while also ensuring the reaction byproducts leave the plasma where the reaction is happening quickly so they don't contaminate the reaction.

"Takentogether, this is a really, really hard problem and it requires a very new learning curve.But the TAE team is really smart, and really fast moving, so if anyone is going to solve this problem, the TAE team is well positioned to be the one to do it," Fisch said.

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Google and Chevron invest in nuclear fusion startup that's raised $1.2 billion - CNBC

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) A month after some members of Congress urged Google to limit the appearance of anti-abortion pregnancy centers in certain abortion-related search results, 17 Republican attorneys general are warning the company that doing so could invite investigations and possible legal action.

Suppressing pro-life and pro-mother voices at the urging of government officials would violate the most fundamental tenet of the American marketplace of ideas, the attorneys general wrote in a letter Thursday to Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and its parent company.

The effort was led by Republican Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares and Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron, and the letter was shared with The Associated Press ahead of its public release.

The Republicans took issue with a June 17 letter to the company from U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Virginia, and Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Michigan, which was co-signed by 19 other members of Congress.

That letter cited research by the nonprofit Center for Countering Digital Hate, which found that Google searches for abortion clinic near me and abortion pill turned up results for centers that counsel clients against having an abortion.

Some of these places, known as crisis pregnancy centers, also have been accused of providing misleading information about abortion and contraception. Many are religiously affiliated.

Directing women towards fake clinics that traffic in misinformation and dont provide comprehensive health services is dangerous to womens health and undermines the integrity of Googles search results, said the June letter, which was authored after the leak of a draft opinion indicating the U.S. Supreme Court would overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion nationwide. The court took that step June 24.

The Democrat-led group asked Google to address what steps it would take to limit the appearance of crisis pregnancy centers in its search results, ads and maps results for users who search for abortion clinic, abortion pill or other similar terms.

The group also asked the company if it would add disclaimers to address whether or not a clinic provides abortions. New York Attorney General Letitia James office also raised similar concerns in a separate June letter to Google.

The letter from the Republican AGs defends the work of crisis pregnancy centers. It notes that such centers often provide services such as free ultrasounds, pregnancy tests, testing for sexually transmitted diseases, and parenting and prenatal education classes. It also argues that at least some Google users who search for information about abortion expect to find information about alternatives.

They wrote that if the company complies with this inappropriate demand to bias its search results, their offices would respond by investigating whether there had been any violation of antitrust or religious discrimination laws. They also pledged to consider whether new legislation would help protect consumers and markets.

We trust that you will treat this letter with the seriousness these issues require, and hope you will decide that Googles search results must not be subject to left-wing political pressure, which would actively harm women seeking essential assistance. If you do not, we must avail ourselves of all lawful and appropriate means of protecting the rights of our constituents, of upholding viewpoint diversity, free expression, and the freedom of religion for all Americans, and of making sure that our markets are free in fact, not merely in theory, the letter said.

It asked the California-based company to respond within 14 days and explain whether it has or will take any steps to treat crisis pregnancy centers any differently than before the leak of the draft Supreme Court decision.

Google did not respond to requests for comment Thursday.

A spokeswoman for Warner said the senator had not received a response to the June letter. But Imran Ahmed, CEO of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, said his organization believes Google recently made a small change in response to its research.

In cases of searches for abortion clinic near me, the company appears to have changed a maps results headline to say Places instead of Abortion clinic, according to the center, which monitors online disinformation and provided its research and screenshots of examples to AP.

Miyares, who defeated incumbent Democrat Mark Herring in November, recently traveled to a Lynchburg crisis pregnancy center that was vandalized after the Supreme Courts ruling, condemning what he called an act of political violence.

Google and other Big Tech companies also have faced recent calls for more stringent privacy controls to address concerns that information about location, texts, searches and emails could be used against people seeking to end unwanted pregnancies.

Google announced this month that it would automatically purge information about users who visit abortion clinics or other places that could trigger legal problems in light of the high courts ruling.

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GOP AGs ask Google not to limit anti-abortion center results - The Associated Press

A zero-day vulnerability in Google Chrome was used by the established spyware group Candiru to compromise users in the Middle East specifically journalists in Lebanon.

Avast researchers said attackers compromised a website used by news agency employees in Lebanon, and injected code. That code identified specific, targeted users and routed them to an exploit server. From there, the attackers collect a set of about 50 data points, including language, device type, time zone, and much more, to verify that they have the intended target.

At the very end of the exploit chain, the attackers drop DevilsTongue spyware, the team noted.

"Based on the malware and TTPs used to carry out the attack, we can confidently attribute it to a secretive spyware vendor of many names, most commonly known as Candiru," the Avast researchers explained.

The original vulnerability (CVE-2022-2294), discovered by the same Avast team, was the result of a memory corruption flaw in WebRTC. Google issued a patch on July 4.

"The vulnerabilities discovered here are definitely serious, particularly because of how far-reaching they are in terms of the number of products affected most modern desktop browsers, mobile browsers, and any other products using the affected components of WebRTC," James Sebree, senior staff research engineer with Tenable, said via email. "If successfully exploited, an attacker could potentially execute their own malicious code on a given victim's computer and install malware, spy on the victim, steal information, or perform any other number of nefarious deeds."

But, Sebree added, the original heap overflow flaw is complicated to exploit and won't likely result in widespread, generalized attacks.

"It's likely that any attacks utilizing this vulnerability are highly targeted," Sebree explained. "While it's unlikely that we will see generalized attacks exploiting this vulnerability, the chances are not zero, and organizations must patch accordingly."

Candiru (aka Sourgum, Grindavik, Saito Tech, and Taveta) allegedly sells the DevilsTongue surveillance malware to governments around the world. The Israeli company was founded by engineers who left NSO Group, maker of the infamous Pegasus spyware.

The US Commerce Department added Candiru to its "Entity List" last year, effectively banning trade with the company. The list is used to restrict those deemed to pose a risk to US national security or foreign policy.

More:

Google Chrome Zero-Day Weaponized to Spy on Journalists - DARKReading

In my six years of recruiting experience, I have placed candidates at major companies like Google, Facebook and Microsoft. But I didn't always know what a good resume looked like.

In 2013, after struggling to find work after college, I decided to hire a resume writer. It didn't turn out as planned: $650 later, I had a six-page resume for less than two years of experience.

The turning point came when I walked into a local sports station with my new resume in hand, and the receptionist bluntly asked me: "Would you want to read a six-page resume on top of everything else you had to do?"

That night, I went home and reworked everything myself. It was so consistent in landing me interviews that my friends asked me to write their resumes. When they all got jobs, my consulting service, Jupiter HR, was born.

One of the most common questions I get asked by clients is what I never want to see on a resume. Here's what I tell them:

These are a waste of valuable resume real estate and usually contain information recruiters would find reading other parts of your resume or your cover letter.

Recruiters and hiring managers tend to skim or speed-read resumes. This means that the first half of your resume has a much bigger role in making a first impression than your second half, and you want your most important and impressive qualifications up top.

Instead of including a personal summary, use the top space to jump right into your experience or a list of your skills and certifications.

There's a false perception among job seekers that Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) auto-reject resumes without relevant keywords. As a result, some people awkwardly pack their resume with words from the job description.

But that's not the reality. An ATS is used to integrate with other company internal systems and keep applications and reports organized. It's the humans who do the rejecting. So only include keywords from the job description when they have true purpose and align with your experience.

It's easy to go overboard and put too much detail into each role you've held. But it's not necessary to include everything. In the tech world, for example, anything you did more than three years ago is considered outdated.

Focus more on your last one or two major positions and how the skills you used there will make you a great fit for the role. This may mean the more recent jobs on your resume have more bullet points under them than the older ones, and that's perfectly fine.

You want someone's first impression of you to be of your skills not your looks or your personal style. Avoid bias by leaving out your headshot or any graphics you designed.

Even a basic graph or line chart can work against you. You never know how someone will read a graphic representation of your skills. You may give someone the impression that you're more or less competent with a particular skill than you actually are.

Instead, write out your accomplishments in a list form and demonstrate how you've used them in your experience section.

If you're applying to a creative role, there are other ways to show off your skills. Ninety-nine percent of resumes are viewed on a computer, so use that to your advantage. Link to your portfolio or blog in your header near your name and contact information.

Although I see it most often with first-time job seekers, even career veterans make the mistake of adding irrelevant positions to their resume just to prove that they've been working.

But your interviewers will verify your experience during the background check. If you have years of experience, there's no need to list every job you've ever had. This only clogs up precious space.

Your resume should demonstrate you're the perfect candidate for the specific job you're applying to. So only include experiences that relate back to that job. The best way to make your resume impactful is to contextualize and support your achievements through numbers and percentages.

Numbers allow you to paint a before and after narrative, clearly showcasing your positive impact on your working environment. Maybe you increased sales by 50% or increased email clickthrough rates by 500%. Either way, you made a real, measurable, positive impact.

JermaineL. Murray is a career coach and founder of JupiterHR. He specializes in helping companies diversify their hiring pipelines with talent from marginalized communities. Follow him on Twitter @JermaineJupiter.

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I've helped people land jobs at Google, Facebook and Uberhere are 5 things I never want to see on your resume - CNBC

Googles latest and most advanced wireless earbuds yet, the Pixel Buds Pro, wont be on store shelves for another week. But the company has announced that its Android software is already prepared for one of the earbuds most convenient new features: the Pixel Buds Pro will be able to switch between devices automatically no settings menus necessary.

Much like the AirPods can hop between other Apple products (iPhone, iPad, Mac) depending on which one youre actively using, Googles flagship earbuds will be able to do the same across Android hardware.

Our audio switching technology builds on top of Fast Pair to use contextual information on what youre listening to in order to switch the audio based on your actions, Googles Angela Hsiao wrote in a blog post. We have more categories that are ranked to determine how to prioritize sounds between phone calls, media and all of the sounds your devices may make. Fast Pair is the feature that automatically links earbuds to your device (and Google account) just by holding them near your phone during setup.

But sometimes a feature sounds better conceptually than it actually works in practice. Ive occasionally been annoyed when my AirPods or Beats earbuds auto jump to a device that I didnt want them to. (If this has been a frequent frustration for you, its possible to turn off Apples automatic switching.)

Google is perhaps trying to head off similar customer complaints by making it very easy to switch audio back over to the first device. Like with all of Android, you have full control of the experience with a notification that appears allowing you to switch the audio back to the original device you were listening on in a single tap, Hsiao said.

Audio switching is different from Bluetooth multipoint; earbuds and headphones that support the latter can connect to two audio sources at the same time, eliminating any need for switching. The Pixel Buds Pro support multipoint as well, and Google seems to think that audio switching will help the earbuds do better at recognizing what audio you want to hear if youre using multiple Android devices, anyway.

Audio switching wont stay exclusive to the Pixel Buds Pro for long. Google says the feature is headed to select Sony and JBL headphones in the coming weeks. For now, the trick is limited to the Android platform, but Google claims its working to reach more of your favorite platforms and devices over time.

Google has said that the other big software feature for the noise-canceling Pixel Buds Pro, head-tracking spatial audio, will arrive via a software update later this year.

Link:

Android is ready for the Pixel Buds Pro's AirPods-like audio switching trick - The Verge