Archive for March 2018

Saturday, March 24, 2018

Bill Gates Biography in Hindi | बिल गेट्स की सफलता की कहानी

Bill Gates Biography in Hindi | बिल गेट्स की सफलता की कहानी

by guideway360

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आज हम फिर एक बार आपके समक्ष एक ऐसे मनुष्य की जीवनी (Biography) लेकर प्रस्तुत हैं जिन्होंने अपने जीवन में अपनी कड़ी मेहनत से न केवल सफलता के शिखर को छुआ, अपितु इतनी प्रसिद्धि भी प्राप्त की कि वह कई लोगों के प्रेरणा स्रोत बन गए – इनका नाम है “बिल गेट्स” (Bill Gates) |

बिल गेट्स को किसी परिचय कि आवश्यकता नहीं है, वह पूरी दुनिया में अपने कार्यों से जाने जाते हैं | हम सभी यह भली भांति जानते हैं कि दुनिया की सर्वश्रेष्ठ Software Company “Microsoft” की नींव भी Bill Gates के द्वारा ही रखी गयी है |

आइये आज हम आपको बिल गेट्स की जीवनी (Bill Gates Biography in Hindi) की विस्तार पूर्वक जानकारी देते हैं |

बिल गेट्स का परिवार (Family of Bill Gates)

बिल गेट्स का वास्तविक तथा पूर्ण नाम विलियम हेनरी गेट्स (William Henry Gates) है | इनका जन्म 28 October, 1955 को वाशिंगटन के सिएटल में हुआ |

इनके परिवार में इनके अतिरिक्त चार और सदस्य थे – इनके पिता विलियम एच गेट्स जो कि एक मशहूर वकील थे, इनकी माता मैरी मैक्‍सवेल गेट्स जो प्रथम इंटरस्टेट बैंक सिस्टम और यूनाइटेड वे के निदेशक मंडल कि सदस्य थी तथा इनकी दो बहनें जिनका नाम क्रिस्टी और लिब्बी हैं |

Bill Gates ने अपने बचपन का भी भरपूर आनंद लिया तथा पढ़ाई के साथ वह खेल कूद में भी सक्रिय रूप से भाग लेते रहे |

बिल गेट्स का बचपन (Childhood of Bill Gates)

उनके माता – पिता उनके लिए क़ानून में करियर बनाने का स्वप्न लेकर बैठे थे परन्तु उन्हें बचपन से ही कंप्यूटर विज्ञान तथा उसकी प्रोग्रामिंग भाषाओं में रूचि थी | उनकी प्रारंभिक शिक्षा लेकसाइड स्कूल में हुई | जब वह आठवीं कक्षा के छात्र थे तब उनके विद्यालय ने ऐएसआर – 33 दूरटंकण टर्मिनल तथा जनरल इलेक्ट्रिक (जी.ई.) कंप्यूटर पर एक कंप्यूटर प्रोग्राम खरीदा जिसमें गेट्स ने रूचि दिखाई |

तत्पश्चात मात्र तेरह वर्ष की आयु में उन्होंने अपना पहला कंप्यूटर प्रोग्राम लिखा जिसका नाम “टिक-टैक-टो” (tic-tac-toe) तथा इसका प्रयोग कंप्यूटर से खेल खेलने हेतु किया जाता था | Bill Gates इस मशीन से बहुत अधिक प्रभावित थे तथा जानने को उत्सुक थे कि यह Software Codes किस प्रकार कार्य करते हैं |

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कंप्यूटर प्रोग्रामिंग के प्रति बिल गेट्स की लगन (Bill Gates Passion for Computer Programming)

इसके पश्चात गेट्स डीईसी (DEC), पीडीपी (PDP), मिनी कंप्यूटर (Mini Computer) नामक सिस्टमों में दिलचस्पी दिखाते रहे, परन्तु उन्हें कंप्यूटर सेंटर कॉरपोरेशन द्वारा ऑपरेटिंग सिस्टम में हो रही खामियों के लिए 1 महीने तक प्रतिबंधित कर दिया गया |

इसी समय के दौरान उन्होंने अपने मित्रों के साथ मिलकर सीसीसी के Software में हो रही कमियों को दूर कर लोगों को प्रभावित किया तथा उसके पश्चात वह सीसीसी के कार्यालय में निरंतर जाकर विभिन्न प्रोग्रामों के लिए सोर्स कोड का अध्ययन करते रहे और यह सिलसिला 1970 तक चलता रहा |

इसके पश्चात इन्फोर्मेशन साइंसेस आइएनसी. लेकसाइड के चार छात्रों को जिनमें Bill Gates भी शामिल थे, कंप्यूटर समय एवं रॉयल्टी उपलब्ध कराकर कोबोल (COBOL), पर एक पेरोल प्रोग्राम लिखने के लिए किराए पर रख लिया। इसके पश्चात उन्हें रोकना नामुमकिन था |

मात्र 17 वर्ष कि उम्र में उन्होंने अपने मित्र एलन के साथ मिलकर ट्राफ़- ओ- डाटा नामक एक उपक्रम बनाया जो इंटेल 8008 प्रोसेसर (Intel 8008 Processor) पर आधारित यातायात काउनटर (Traffic Counter) बनाने के लिए प्रयोग में लाया गया |

1973 में वह लेकसाइड स्कूल से पास हुए तथा उसके पश्चात बहु- प्रचलित हारवर्ड कॉलेज (Harvard College) में उनका दाखिला हुआ | परन्तु उन्होंने 1975 में ही बिना स्नातक किए वहाँ से विदा ले ली जिसका कारण था उस समय उनके जीवन में दिशा का अभाव |

उसके पश्चात उन्होंने Intel 8080 चिप बनाया तथा यह उस समय का व्यक्तिगत कंप्यूटर (Personal Computer) के अन्दर चलने वाला सबसे वहनयोग्य चिप था, जिसके पश्चात बिल गेट्स को यह एहसास हुआ कि समय द्वारा दिया गया यह सबसे उत्तम अवसर है जब उन्हें अपनी स्वयं कि Company का आरम्भ करना चाहिए |

माइक्रोसॉफ्ट कंपनी का उत्थान (The rise of Microsoft Company)

MITS (Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems) जिन्होंने एक माइक्रो कंप्यूटर का निर्माण किया था, उन्होंने गेट्स को एक प्रदर्शनी में उपस्थित होने कि सहमती दी तथा गेट्स ने उनके लिए अलटेयर एमुलेटर (Emulator) निर्मित किया जो Mini Computer और बाद में इंटरप्रेटर में सक्रिय रूप से कार्य करने लगा |

इसके बाद Bill Gates व् उनके साथी को MITS के अल्बुकर्क स्थित कार्यालय में काम करने कि अनुमति दी गयी | उन्होंने अपनी जोड़ी का नाम Micro-Soft रखा तथा अपने पहले कार्यालय कि स्थापना अल्बुकर्क में ही की | 26 नवम्बर, 1976 को उन्होंने Microsoft का नाम एक व्यापारिक Company के तौर पर पंजीकृत किया |

Microsoft Basic कंप्यूटर के चाहने वालों में सबसे अधिक लोकप्रिय हो गया था | 1976 में ही Microsoft MITS से पूर्णत: स्वतंत्र हो गया तथा Gates और Allen ने मिलकर कंप्यूटर में प्रोग्रामिंग भाषा Software का कार्य जारी रखा |

इनसे बाद Microsoft ने Albuquerque में अपना कार्यालय बंद कर Bellevue, Washington में अपना नया कार्यालय खोला | Microsoft ने उन्नति की ओर बढ़ते हुए प्रारंभिक वर्षों में बहुत मेहनत व् लगन से कार्य किया | गेट्स भी व्यावसायिक विवरण पर भी ध्यान देते थे, कोड लिखने का कार्य भी करते थे तथा अन्य कर्मचारियों द्वारा लिखे गए व् जारी किये गए कोड कि प्रत्येक पंक्ति कि समीक्षा भी वह स्वयं ही करते थे |

इसके बाद जानी मानी Company IBM ने Microsoft के साथ काम करने में रूचि दिखाई, उन्होंने Microsoft से अपने पर्सनल कंप्यूटर के लिए बेसिक इंटरप्रेटर बनाने का अनुरोध किया |

कई कठिनाइयों से निकलने के बाद गेट्स ने Seattle Computer Products के साथ एक समझौता किया जिसके बाद एकीकृत लाइसेंसिंग एजेंट और बाद में 86-DOS के वह पूर्ण आधिकारिक बन गए और बाद में उन्होंने इसे आईबीएम को $80,000 के शुल्क पर PC-DOS के नाम से उपलब्ध कराया | इसके पश्चात Microsoft का उद्योग जगत में बहुत नाम हुआ |

1981 में Microsoft को पुनर्गठित कर बिल गेट्स को इसका चेयरमैन व् निदेशक मंडल का अध्यक्ष बनाया गया | जिसके बाद Microsoft ने अपना Microsoft Windows का पहला संस्करण पेश किया | 1975 से लेकर 2006 तक उन्होंने Microsoft के पद पर बहुत ही अदभुत कार्य किया, उन्होंने इस दौरान Microsoft company के हित में कई महत्वपूर्ण निर्णय लिए |

बिल गेट्स का विवाह व् आगे का जीवन (Bill Gates Personal Life)

1994 में Bill Gates का विवाह फ्रांस में रहने वाली Melinda से हुआ तथा 1996 में इन्होंने जेनिफर कैथेराइन गेट्स को जन्म दिया | इसके बाद मेलिंडा तथा बिल गेट्स के दो और बच्चे हुए जिनके नाम रोरी जॉन गेट्स तथा फोएबे अदेले गेट्स हैं |

वर्तमान में बिल गेट्स अपने परिवार के साथ वाशिंगटन स्थित मेडिना में उपस्थित अपने सुन्दर घर में रहते हैं, जिसकी कीमत 1250 लाख डॉलर है |

बिल एंड मेलिंडा गेट्स फाउंडेशन का उदय (Rise of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation)

वर्ष 2000 में उन्होंने अपनी पत्नी के साथ मिलकर बिल एंड मेलिंडा गेट्स फाउंडेशन (Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation) की नींव रखी जो कि पारदर्शिता से संचालित होने वाला विश्व का सबसे बड़ा Charitable Foundation था |

उनका यह Foundation ऐसी समस्याओं के लिए कोष दान में देता था जो सरकार द्वारा नज़रअंदाज़ कर दी जाती थीं जैसे कि कृषि, कम प्रतिनिधित्व वाले अल्पसंख्यक समुदायों के लिये कॉलेज छात्रवृत्तियां, एड्स जैसी बीमारियों के निवारण हेतु, इत्यादि |

परोपकारी कार्य (Charitable Work)

सन 2000 में इस Foundation ने Cambridge University को 210 मिलियन डॉलर गेट्स कैम्ब्रिज छात्रवृत्तियों हेतु दान किये | वर्ष 2000 तक Bill Gates ने 29 बिलियन डॉलर केवल परोपकारी कार्यों हेतु दान में दे दिए |

लोगों की उनसे बढती हुई उम्मीदों को देखते हुए वर्ष 2006 में उन्होंने यह घोषणा की कि वह अब Microsoft में अंशकालिक रूप से कार्य करेंगे और बिल एंड मेलिंडा गेट्स फाउंडेशन में पूर्णकालिक रूप से कार्य करेंगे |

वर्ष 2008 में गेट्स ने Microsoft के दैनिक परिचालन प्रबंधन कार्य से पूर्णतया विदा ले ली परन्तु अध्यक्ष और सलाहकार के रूप में वह Microsoft में विद्यमान रहे |

आइये अब हम आपको बिल गेट्स की कुछ महत्वपूर्ण बातों से अवगत कराते हैं ;

मात्र 13 वर्ष कि आयु में अपना पहला कंप्यूटर प्रोग्राम टिक-टैक-टो लिखा |
विद्यालय में शिक्षा ग्रहण करते हुए ही उन्होंने कंप्यूटर प्रोग्राम बनाकर 4,200 डॉलर कमा लिए |
उन्होंने अपने अध्यापक से कहा था कि वह 30 वर्ष की आयु तक करोड़पति बन जाएंगे और मात्र 31 वर्ष की आयु में उन्होंने अरबपति बनकर दिखाया |
फोर्ब्स की विश्व की सबसे अमीर लोगों की सूची में गेट्स का नाम लगातार 11 वर्षों तक पहले नंबर पर आता रहा |
उन्होंने दो किताबें भी लिखीं – The Road Ahead और Business @ The Speed of Thought|
पूरे जगत की सबसे बड़ी Software Company की नींव बिल गेट्स द्वारा ही रखी गयी |

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Friday, March 23, 2018

This is the Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S, launch set for March 27

This is the Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S, launch set for March 27....

by guideway360

Not that it's new. The Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S has leaked one more time ahead of its China launch which is set for March 27. The leak, that seemingly stems from what is said to be a promo video of Universal Pictures' new release Pacific Rim Uprising, gives a brief look at Xiaomi's soon-to-launch Mi Mix 2S.

The Mi Mix 2S that features right in the end of the video is seen having a familiar design similar to what we've seen courtesy the Mi Mix 2. The video also confirms, one more time, that the Mi Mix 2S won't have a notch up-top which means its selfie camera may lie at the same location as the one on-board the Mi Mix and the Mi Mix 2.

The Mi Mix 2S, which is apparently code-named Polaris, has been subject to numerous leaks and rumours. The Mi Mix 2S will come with a FHD+ 18:9 display and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor under the hood. It will be based on Android Oreo, and will be backed by a 3,400mAh battery. Rumour as it that it will come with up to 8GB RAM and up to 256GB storage.Its rear camera will further bring in AI features that would apparently help it detect scenes and hopefully change the way it takes pictures accordingly. The phone, in addition, will support dual-SIM and have an IR blaster much like most Xiaomi phones.

The Mi Mix 2 was launched in India in October last year at a price of Rs 35,999. The Mi Mix 2 comes with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor and up to 6GB of RAM. On the camera front, the Mi Mix 2 comes with a 12-megapixel rear camera -- Sony IMX386 sensor -- assisted with phase detection autofocus, 4-axis OIS and dual-LED (dual-tone) flash. The rear camera is capable of shooting 1080p and 4K videos at 30fps. It is backed by a 3,400mAh battery and runs Android Nougat-based MIUI out-of-the-box.

The Mi Mix 2S, it seems like, would be an incremental upgrade to the Mi Mix 2 packing in next-generation hardware and some fancy new AI tricks. The Mi Mix 2S, will also reportedly, come with a dual camera system on the rear which should be a step-up from what we've seen in the Mi Mix 2.

Cambridge Analytica Scandal: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg Formally Asked to Testify by US Lawmakers

Unknown March 23, 2018 about internet knowlege updates Leave a Reply

Cambridge Analytica Scandal: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg Formally Asked to Testify by US Lawmakers

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by guideway360

The leaders of a key House committee declared Thursday that Facebook officials failed to answer questions about a privacy scandal involving a Trump-connected data-mining company, and they want CEO Mark Zuckerberg to testify before the panel.

Reps. Greg Walden of Oregon and Frank Pallone of New Jersey said in a brief statement that the "latest revelations regarding Facebook's use and security of user data raise many serious consumer protection concerns."

Representatives from Facebook, who weren't named, briefed the committee's staff Wednesday, according to Walden and Pallone. But a spokeswoman for the committee said the session left many unanswered questions about how Facebook and third-party developers use and protect consumer data on the social media network.

Walden is chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee and Pallone is the panel's top ranking Democrat. Their statement comes a day after Zuckerberg said during an interview on CNN that he would be "happy" to testify before Congress, but only if he was the right person to do that. He said there might be other Facebook officials better positioned to appear, depending on what Congress wanted to know.

Walden and Pallone said that as Facebook's top executive, Zuckerberg is indeed the "right witness to provide answers to the American people." They said they would work with Facebook and Zuckerberg to set a date and time for a hearing in the near future.

Their call represents the first official request from a congressional oversight committee for Zuckerberg's appearance amid demands by lawmakers that Facebook explain reports that Cambridge Analytica harvested the data of more than 50 million Facebook users in order to sway elections.

The company, funded in part by Trump supporter and billionaire financier Robert Mercer, paired its vault of consumer data with voter information. The Trump campaign paid the firm nearly $6 million (approximately Rs. 39 crores) during the 2016 election, although it has since distanced itself. Other Republican clients of Cambridge Analytica included Sen. Ted Cruz's failed presidential campaign and Ben Carson, the famed neurosurgeon who also ran unsuccessfully for president in 2016.

The data was gathered through a personality test app called "This Is Your Digital Life" that was downloaded by fewer than 200,000 people. But participants unknowingly gave researchers access to the profiles of their Facebook friends, allowing them to collect data from millions more users.

Republicans on the Senate Commerce Committee sent Zuckerberg a letter Monday that said the possibility that Facebook has not been transparent with consumers is troubling. They asked for responses by next week to a series of questions, including whether Facebook is aware of any other instances in which a third-party app developer used or shared Facebook user data improperly.

It's far from certain what action, if any, the GOP-led Congress and the Trump administration might take against Facebook, but the company will almost certainly oppose any efforts to regulate it or the technology business sector more broadly.

As do most large corporations, Facebook has assembled a potent lobbying operation to advance its interests in Washington. The company spent just over $13 million (approximately Rs. 84 crores) on lobbying in 2017, with the bulk of the money spent on an in-house lobbying team that's stocked with former Republican and Democratic political aides, according to disclosure records filed with the House and Senate.

The company sought to influence an array of matters that ranged from potential changes to government surveillance programs to corporate tax issues. One of the team's newer members, Sandra Luff, was Attorney General Jeff Sessions' national security adviser when he served in the Senate.

Facebook also employs a small army of outside lobbyists. Among them is Harbinger Strategies, which earned $240,000 (approximately Rs. 1.5 crores) last year and deployed four former Capitol Hill staffers to promote Facebook's interests as lawmakers debated the new tax law, cyber security and online advertising issues

Data drive results in a surge of app-based calls like WhatsApp

Unknown March 23, 2018 about internet knowlege Leave a Reply

Data drive results in a surge of app-based calls like WhatsApp............

by guideway360

According to data from Warp Speed Reads, a telecom and technology research firm, call volumes on WhatsApp and other app platforms jumped by 87% to 86.4 billion minutes in 2017 over 2016. This was preceded by a 51% growth in 2016 over 2015.

In comparison, call traffic on traditional networks rose on a year-on-year basis by 28.2% to 3.04 trillion minutes in 2017 and by 5.35% in 2016.

“There is a bump in overall calling traffic in 2017, which includes (4G) LTE calling traffic. There is growth not only in total volume of calls but also minutes per subscriber per month… clearly the Reliance Jio effect has helped telco calling traffic,” said Warp Speed Reads founder and former Ovum analyst Neha Dharia.

Deloitte Haskins and Sells partner Hemant Joshi said a section of consumers has taken to making (data, or app) calls from Wi-Fi networks.“The use case (on app based calls) would have increased in the past months with the number of call drops on traditional voice networks increasing, as carriers move to upgrade their networks to 4G,” said Joshi.

But he added that the share of smartphones in India is only 35-38%, with the balance being featurephones. And as older operators Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular try to match Jio’s free voice and ultra-cheap offers for both smartphone and basic phones users, there has been an increase in their network traffic.

In the quarter ended December 2017, the number of minutes used on Vodafone India’s network was up 8% sequentially, Idea’s was up 11%, and market leader Airtel’s rose 13%. For Jio, which started its services in September 2016, the minutes of use rose by 29.5% on quarter.

But that would have been higher still, had people not had the option of app-based, or data calls, mainly on WhatsApp, with the price of mobile internet having plunged some 90% in the year, say analysts.

Telco Minutes May Plateau Out in 2019 and 2020In addition to plunging data prices and improvement in calling clarity, some also use OTT or appbased calls as they ensure privacy and cannot be tracked, said Navkendar Singh, research director at International Data Corporation India. “We can confirm that voice and video calls are on the rise,” a WhatsApp spokesperson said in response to ET’s queries, adding that since it launched voice calling in 2016, it has worked continuously on improving the quality and reliability of calls.

“Last month, we added a button that makes it possible to easily switch between voice and video without interrupting the call,” said the world’s largest messaging platform, which has India as its largest market with over 200 million users. Over a billion Indians use mobile phones Interestingly, globally, cross-border OTT traffic has already surpassed carrier traffic — 552 billion minutes on average in 2016 for apps compared with 546 billion minutes of carrier traffic — as per data from TeleGeography. “As traditional carrier traffic has slumped, OTT traffic has risen to fill the void,” the research firm said in a blog post last month.

For the time being, experts say telcos don’t need to lose sleep over the growth of OTT traffic. “The rise in OTT calls is to a limited extent adding to the data revenue of telcos, as all OTT calls use data,” said Mritunjay Kapur, TMT head for KPMG India,” said KPMG India TMT head Mritunjay Kapur.

Warp Speed Reads’ Dharia expects telco minutes to grow slightly in 2018 and then plateau out in 2019 and 2020, with more subscribers opting for app-based calling, given regulations, caps on unlimited free minutes in traditional calling plans and the Indian customer warming up to mobile internet services. In comparison, app voice call volume is set to grow by 39% on year in 2018, 44% in 2019 and 46% in 2020.

Bolton Was Early Beneficiary of Cambridge Analytica’s Facebook Data

Unknown March 23, 2018 earn online updates Leave a Reply

Bolton Was Early Beneficiary of Cambridge Analytica’s Facebook Data

by guideway360

The John Bolton Super PAC first hired Cambridge Analytica in August 2014 while it was still harvesting Facebook data. Credit

WASHINGTON — The political action committee founded by John R. Bolton, President Trump’s incoming national security adviser, was one of the earliest customers of Cambridge Analytica, which it hired specifically to develop psychological profiles of voters with data harvested from tens of millions of Facebook profiles, according to former Cambridge employees and company documents.

Mr. Bolton’s political committee, known as The John Bolton Super PAC, first hired Cambridge in August 2014, months after the political data firm was founded and while it was still harvesting the Facebook data.

In the two years that followed, Mr. Bolton’s super PAC spent nearly $1.2 million primarily for “survey research,” which is a term that campaigns use for polling, according to campaign finance records.

But the contract between the political action committee and Cambridge, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times, offers more detail on just what Mr. Bolton was buying. The contract broadly describes the services to be delivered by Cambridge as “behavioral microtargeting with psychographic messaging.”

To do that work, Cambridge used Facebook data, according to the documents and two former employees familiar with the work.

“The data and modeling Bolton’s PAC received was derived from the Facebook data,” said Christopher Wylie, a data expert who was part of the team that founded Cambridge Analytica. “We definitely told them about how we were doing it. We talked about it in conference calls, in meetings.”

Cambridge Analytica, which rose to prominence through its work with Mr. Trump’s 2016 election campaign, has found itself confronting a deepening crisis since reports this past weekend in The New York Times and The Observer of London that the firm had harvested the data from more than 50 million Facebook profiles in its bid to develop techniques for predicting the behavior of individual American voters.

Cambridge’s so-called psychographic modeling techniques, which were built in part with the data harvested from Facebook, underpinned its work for Mr. Trump’s campaign in 2016, setting off a furious — and still unsettled — debate about whether the firm’s technology worked. The same techniques were also the focus of its work for Mr. Bolton’s super PAC.

“The Bolton PAC was obsessed with how America was becoming limp wristed and spineless and it wanted research and messaging for national security issues,” Mr. Wylie said.

“That really meant making people more militaristic in their worldview,” he added. “That’s what they said they wanted, anyway.”

Using the psychographic models, Cambridge helped design concepts for advertisements for candidates supported by Mr. Bolton’s PAC, including the 2014 campaign of Thom Tillis, the Republican senator from North Carolina, according to Mr. Wylie and another former employee, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid being dragged into the investigations that now appear to be engulfing Cambridge.

One advertisement, a video that was posted on YouTube, was aimed at people who scored high for conscientiousness, and were thought to respect hard work and experience. It emphasized Mr. Bolton’s time working for Ronald Reagan and how Mr. Tillis embodied the spirit and political ethos of the late president.

Keep America Secure "For Our Children"

Beyond their conservative politics, Mr. Trump, Mr. Bolton and Cambridge Analytica all share a patron — the Mercer family of Long Island, whose patriarch, Robert L. Mercer, made a fortune at the helm of a top-yielding hedge fund.

Cambridge Analytica, which grew out of the London-based SCL Group, was founded in 2014 with a $15 million investment from Mr. Mercer, whose daughter Rebekah sits on the firm’s board of directors. Stephen K. Bannon was also a co-founder.

At the same time, Mr. Mercer was financially supporting Mr. Bolton’s PAC, donating $5 million between April 2014 and September 2016, according to Federal Election Commission filings. The Mercers also backed Mr. Trump in the presidential election.

The Mercer family has not publicly commented since the reports about the misuse of Facebook data by Cambridge first surfaced in The Times and The Observer.

The reports have prompted calls from lawmakers in Britain and the United States for renewed scrutiny of Facebook, and at least two American state prosecutors have said they are looking into the misuse of data by Cambridge Analytica.

The company also suspended its chief executive, Alexander Nix, after a television broadcast this week in which he was recorded suggesting that the company had used seduction and bribery to entrap politicians and influence foreign elections.

But it is the harvesting of Facebook data that has cast the harshest spotlight on Cambridge, and Mr. Bolton’s experience with the company appears to have provided a model for how it sold itself to future political campaigns, including Mr. Trump’s.

The firm took the psychographic profiles it was building off the Facebook data at the time and combined them with voter databases and other sets of data. Staff from SCL’s elections division, which through a convoluted corporate structure was interchangeable with Cambridge, discussed what they were doing at a meeting in July 2014 with another contractor for the Bolton PAC, according to an agenda of the meeting obtained by The Times.

The profiles would be used to “identify the personality traits of individuals” in states to be targeted by the Bolton PAC, said the agenda, which was prepared for SCL and Cambridge staff. “Individuals can be targeted with the right message,” it said.

The agenda also included a line, in boldfaced text, that said SCL wanted to use voter contact lists available to Bolton’s campaign to direct people “toward the FB app.” Cambridge, working through an outside researcher, used a Facebook app to harvest data from the social network’s profiles. The app claimed to be collecting data for academic research, and users were not aware of its true purpose.

Months later, the relationship between Cambridge and the Bolton PAC had grown so close that the firm was writing up talking points for Mr. Bolton. In an email dated Oct. 1, 2014, Cambridge staff outlined a few sentences that Mr. Bolton could use to describe the work the new firm was doing for his super PAC.

“It’s not just about how much you spend. It’s also about how smart you spend,” the email advised Mr. Bolton to say.

“One way we’re doing that is by enlisting an outside firm” — Cambridge Analytica — “to provide deepdive research into who makes up our audience of target voters,” it continued. “We are producing ads specifically designed for voters of a certain personality and demographic profile. So if you’re a young woman in New Hampshire with a specific kind of personality and a particular set of issues that you care about, our research allows us to connect with that voter in a way that truly resonates with her.

Elon Musk pulls Tesla and SpaceX from Facebook

Unknown March 23, 2018 about internet knowlege updates Leave a Reply

Elon Musk pulls Tesla and SpaceX from Facebook..

by guideway360

Entrepreneur Elon Musk has had the official Facebook pages for his Tesla and SpaceX companies deleted.

The #deletefacebook movement has grown after data firm Cambridge Analytica was accused of obtaining the personal information of about 50 million users.

Mr Musk had poked fun at speaker brand Sonos after it said it would suspend advertising on Facebook for one week.

His followers challenged him to have his own companies' pages deleted, which he did within minutes.

Mr Musk said he "didn't realise" that his SpaceX brand had a Facebook page. "Literally never seen it even once," he wrote on Twitter. "Will be gone soon."

Another follower pointed out his firm Tesla also had a profile on the social network.

"Looks lame," he replied. Both profiles disappeared within minutes of his posts.

The pages had more than 2.5 million followers each before they were deactivated.

In 2016, Facebook used SpaceX to launch a new communications satellite valued at more than $200m ($NZ2930m).

However, the rocket exploded on the launch pad and destroyed the satellite.

After a reporter tweeted that "@elonmusk blew up Mark Zuckerberg's satellite", Mr Musk replied: "Yeah, my fault for being an idiot. We did give them a free launch to make up for it and I think they had some insurance."

He said he would continue to use Facebook-owned Instagram for the time being, but lamented "FB influence is slowly creeping in"

Saturday, March 24, 2018