The Nation Newspaper

Tag: San Jose

  • Facebook’s F8 conference showcases African Developers

    Facebook’s F8 conference showcases African Developers

    African developers shared the stage with developers from Facebook and other parts of the world at the F8 developers’ conference held in San Jose, California, News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.

    The developers showcased their innovative products and services created for their local communities and the global market.

    Mr Emeka Afigbo, Facebook’s Head of Platform Partnerships for the Middle East and Africa, said that the organisation’s partnership with developers was for global benefit.

    “We’re partnering with many African developers to launch products that not only meet the needs of their local markets, but which are also ready for the world stage.

    “Events like F8 are a perfect opportunity for us to talk about how we will work with partners to do more with our platforms.

    “This is a forum for us to get feedback from our ecosystem and to showcase our partners’ work to the world,” Afigbo said.

    F8 hosts more than 4,000 people in person and hundreds of thousands of people watching via Facebook Live for two days of new products, tools, interactive demos and speakers to help developers build, grow and monetise their apps.

    This year, Facebook brought F8 to developers around the world through F8 Meet-ups hosted with tech hubs around the world.

    In Africa, it hosted F8 Meet-ups in Nairobi, Lagos, and Cape Town, where participants watched live streams of the sessions in San Francisco.

    NAN reports that the Facebook’s F8 is a mostly-annual conference it hosts for developers and entrepreneurs who build products and services around the website.

    Facebook had often introduced new features and made new announcements at the conference.

    The “F8” name came from Facebook’s tradition of 8 hour hackathons

    A hackathon (also known as a hack day, hackfest or codefest) is a design sprint-like event in which computer programmers and others involved in software development collaborate intensively on software projects.

    The programmers and other developers include interface designers project managers and others, often including subject matter experts.

    Hackathons typically last between a day and a week; some hackathons are intended simply for educational or social purposes, although in many cases the goal is to create usable software.

    The scheduling of F8 has been somewhat erratic; no conference was held in 2009, 2012 or 2013, and the date for the 2011 conference was announced late.

  • Facebook developing keyboardless typing directly from human brain

    Facebook developing keyboardless typing directly from human brain

    Facebook is working to create a data input method that doesn’t rely on a keyboard, but instead allows the user to type directly from the brain, the company said at its two-day developers conference in San Jose, California.

    “In a few years’  time we expect to demonstrate a real-time silent speech system capable of delivering 100 words per minute,” or about five-times faster than a person can type with a Smartphone, said vice president of engineering Regina Dugan on the second day of the conference.

    Dugan also heads Facebook’s hardware research unit known as Building eight, which has more than 60 scientists and engineers working on the new keyboardless typing method.

    The input method could, for example, allow users to send a text message or email to a friend without taking out a Smartphone to type.

    Dugan also tried to calm consumers at the conference, saying the California-based social media giant isn’t interested in detecting a person’s thoughts, but only what the person intends to type.

    “We’re not talking about decoding your random thoughts. That might be more than any of us care to know,” she said.

    Dugan referred to research at Stanford University, which has allowed a paralysed woman to type at about eight words per minute directly from her brain.

    But the current method requires invasive surgery in which an array of electrodes is implanted to receive data where the brain would normally control the person’s motor functions.

    “That simply won’t scale,” Dugan said, referring the surgery process.

    “So we’ll need new non-invasive sensors.”

    Facebook is considering wearables such as caps that can read data through the human skull.

    While the company may need years to produce a mass-scale device, any advances in the research have potential to be a huge breakthrough in human communications, Dugan said.

    “Even something as simple as a yes-no brain click would fundamentally change our capability.”

     

  • ‘Clinton should go to jail’ over private email server- Trump

    ‘Clinton should go to jail’ over private email server- Trump

    U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump says his likely opponent, Mrs Hillary Clinton, should be imprisoned for using a private email server during her term as secretary of state.

    “I will say this, Hillary Clinton has got to go to jail,” Trump said at a campaign stop in San Jose, California.

    “Folks, honestly, she’s guilty as hell,” Trump added, saying if he is elected president he will direct his attorney general to investigate Clinton over her use of the private server.

    Earlier Thursday, Clinton gave a foreign policy speech in which she said Trump was “temperamentally unfit” to be president.

    She said that it would be dangerous to entrust him with the country’s nuclear codes.

  • Fatai Alashe takes San Jose Earthquakes by storm

    Fatai Alashe takes San Jose Earthquakes by storm

    Nigeria-born Fatai Alashe is enjoying his time at Major League Soccer (MLS) side San Jose Earthquakes as he has received accolades from manager Dominic Kinnear and fellow teammates.

    Former Michigan State midfielder, Alashe, was a fourth overall pick in the 2015 Super Draft and has been consistent in the team.

    Coach Kinnear said Alashe has added value to the team since he joined them.

    “All I can say, bottom line, is that I think we’re a better team with him on the field,” Kinnear remarked. San Jose Earthquakes’ experienced midfielder Shea Salinas said they were not expecting Alashe to start well being a roookie, but he has since proven them wrong.

    “We’d heard that he was a good player, kind of Ricardo Clark-like, but you never really can expect a whole lot from rookies because you just never know what they’re going to be like,” he revealed.

    “But clearly, from the first pre-season game he played, all of us knew that he was going to be a good player and a contributor.

    “He’s just a calm presence in there, I think he finds good spaces to get the ball, and he keeps it well for us. He’s been a big part of our team this year.”

    Alashe needed no time in establishing himself as new coach Kinnear’s first choice as a classic No. 6 providing cover in front of San Jose’s backline. Indeed, the Quakes dealt incumbent Sam Cronin just four days after picking up the 21-year-old with their highest draft pick since 2010.

    To buttress his importance to the MLS side, the team requested for Alashe’s early release from the US U-23 team who were competing in the Toulon Tournament in France, where he scored in USA’s 3-2 win over Costa Rica to win third place.

  • Sounders FC 1-1 San Jose: Martins completes 90 mins

    Sounders FC 1-1 San Jose: Martins completes 90 mins

    Obafemi Martins played for 90 minutes as Seattle Sounders battled to a 1-1 draw against San jose Earthquakes in a Major League game yesterday.

    The first chance of the game fell to the visitors in the 12th minute when Atiba Harris forced Stefan Frei to make an impressive save with a powerful strike from the edge of the box.

    Seattle took charge of the match following a sluggish start, but they were left frustrated in the first half as Jon Busch made stops to deny both Kenny Cooper and Obafemi Martins.

    It proved to be a different story just after the break as the Sounders broke the deadlock in the opening minute of the second half thanks to Chad Barrett, who benefited from a clever pass from Martins on his way to sliding the ball past Busch.

    Seattle could have extended their advantage, but were guilty of wasting good opportunities as Marco Pappa and Barrett missed chances from the edge of the box.

    San Jose made the hosts pay for their misses in the 65th minute when Cordell Cato eased past a couple of defenders before picking out Chris Wondolowski, who tapped home the equaliser from close range.

    Neither side were happy to settle for a point in the closing stages, but a lack of clear opportunities ensured there was no winner at CenturyLink Field.