Peter's Interest

Last weekend, one of the most glittering alumni of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Kharagpur did not show up to give a school prize as he had promised. Sundar Pichai, then head of product at  Google , begged off for reasons that became abundantly clear over the next few days: he had just been promoted to chief executive, and he had work to do. The tech industry has seen its share of strange corporate maneuvers, but Google’s realignment this week has to be among the strangest. The company pulled off a sort of upside-down merger with itself, in effect creating a holding company called Alphabet that runs a mega-profitable company called Google on the one hand and a dozen other money-losers and long-odds bets that Google has called “moonshots” on the other. “This new structure will allow us to keep tremendous focus on the extraordinary opportunities we have inside of Google,” Larry Page wrote in  a blogpost  that surprised the entire industry. “A key part ...

Facebook cancelled a Harvard student's internship after he created a Google Chrome plugin that highlighted serious privacy flaws in the social network's messaging service, Boston.com reports. In May, computer science and mathematics student Aran Khanna built Marauder's Map. It was a browser plugin that made use of the fact that people who use the Facebook Messenger share their location with everyone they message with by default. Upon installing the plugin, users could use it to precisely track the movements of anyone they were in a conversation thread with. This included users who they were not friends with on Facebook — and was accurate to within a meter. The app went viral, was downloaded 85,000 times, and saw widespread press coverage by The Guardian, The Daily Mail, Huffington Post, and elsewhere. Three days after he launched it via a Medium post, Khanna disabled the plugin after Facebook told him to. At the social network's request, he refused to speak to press,...

MANKATO, Minn. -- The Minnesota Vikings didn't do much game-planning for the Pittsburgh Steelers, whom they'll face in the Pro Football Hall of Fame Game on Sunday night. Coach Mike Zimmer typically reserves the start of the preseason to make sure the Vikings have a solid grasp of their own fundamentals before he implements a game plan for a specific opponent. That's probably a good thing, because the Steelers aren't using many of their starters for the first of five preseason games. Coach Mike Tomlin said on Friday that quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, running back Le'Veon Bell, wide receiver Antonio Brown, tight end Heath Miller, center Maurkice Pouncey and linebacker James Harrison will all sit out Sunday night. In fact, the Steelers might be sitting out even more starters than the Vikings will. Zimmer said on Friday he wasn't sure if linebacker Anthony Barr (left knee inflammation) or defensive end Sco...

Bollywood’s Dabangg Salman Khan will once again be seen depicting a double role. This is for the sequel of his block buster hit Kick. Salman Khan already has a double role in Sooraj Barjatya’s ‘Prem Ratan Dhan Payo’ and now in ‘Kick 2′ too he will be playing a double role. This looks like double fun for his fans. Salman Khan recently made an official confirmation of the sequel to his film ‘Kick’ that had catapulted Jacqueline Fernandez to super-stardom. Salman Khan revealed that he is in talks with Sajid Nadiadwala. Sajid is writing the script for the film. Salman also confirmed that he has a double role in the movie. Salman Khan said, “Work on the film’s script is on. I had only given him (Sajid) the concept, and now, he is working on the story. The movie will have a double role. Bahut zabardast idea hai (the idea is mind-blowing). When he is done with the script and the screenplay, we will take it on the floors.” Salman Khan is at present shooting for Sooraj Barjatya’s Prem...

They are the bane of impatient motorists and are responsible for thousands of road rage incidents across the globe. Now the humble traffic light has been honoured with a  Google Doodle  to celebrate its 100th Anniversary on Wednesday. The first ever traffic lights were unveiled in London in the late 19th century, and placed outside the Houses of Parliament. Non-electric and gas-operated, police officers had to work the lights by hand in a bid to control vehicles crossing on nearby Bridge Street, Great George Street and Parliament Street. The project was short-lived after an explosion in 1869 when a leak in gas lines passing under the device exploded, and seriously injured the police officer operating the lights. More than thirty years later an American enjoyed greater success with some eletronic lights that focused on a similar - and now internationally recognisable - system of red and green lights. Lester Wire, a former detective in Salt Lake City, ...

Entertainer Cilla Black is reported to have died at her Spanish home. A post-mortem is being carried out on her body after it was found at the property, but local police believe she died of natural causes. The 72-year-old had left the UK during the week to spend time with one of her sons at her holiday home in Marbella. Cilla Black was born Priscilla Maria Veronica White on May 27, 1943. She was best known for her career as a pop star in the 60s and TV star in the 80s and 90s with 'Surprise Surprise' and 'Blind Date'.

BMW and Apple may rekindle a courtship put on hold after an exploratory visit by executives of the world's top maker of electronic gadgets to the headquarters of the word's biggest seller of premium cars. Apple chief executive Tim Cook went to BMW's headquarters last year and senior Apple executives toured the carmaker's Leipzig factory to learn how it manufactures the i3 electric car, two sources familiar with the talks told Reuters. The dialogue ended without conclusion because Apple appears to want to explore developing a passenger car on its own, one of the sources said. Also, BMW is being cautious about sharing its manufacturing know-how because it wants to avoid becoming a mere supplier to a software or internet giant. During the visit, Apple executives asked BMW board members detailed questions about tooling and production and BMW executives signalled readiness to license parts, one of the sources said. News of the Leipzig visit first emerged in Germany's ...