Mayor Bloomberg unveils the new ‘Made in NY Digital Jobs Map’ to help job-seekers in the tech sector find work (www.nydailynews.com)

The city’s Chief Digital Officer, Rachel Sterne, and Mayor Bloomberg, unveiled a tech-centric digital map to help job-seekers find work. Mayor Bloomberg wants to lead job-seekers to work with a new interactive, digital map that will link users to job openings at tech firms. “Not only does it show you where a company is located, you can also quickly discover if it’s hiring,” Bloomberg crowed in unveiling the map Tuesday. The digital jobs map — http://www.mappedinny.com/ — is an interactive guide to the city’s tech start-ups, investors, incubators and shared working spaces, he said. The map plots more than 500 digital companies in the city, including Facebook, Foursquare, Kickstarter, Seamless and, of course, Bloomberg L.P. More than 325 digital companies that are listed on the map are now hiring, Bloomberg administration officials said. The map also locates offices of investors, making it a convenient tool for start-ups in search of capital. (Continue reading at www.nydailynews.com)

My Two Cents: Being a technology corporation located in the heart of the New York Technology Sector, its good to have the City government making it a little easier for us to find good talent. Having an office here in the Flatiron district, makes it a wonderful place for developers to live and work. I personally can never go back to Silicon Valley, I would rather walk home, then get stuck on the 101 or 280 in traffic…

Oracle, Google Struggle To Explain APIs To Jury (www.informationweek.com)

Oracle and Google continued their legal battle in San Francisco federal court on Thursday, beginning the day with a tussle over the authenticity of Java code that Oracle claims to have downloaded from Google’s website on March 12. Oracle says the file shows that Google has not removed the allegedly infringing Android code from its public website as Google claims to have done. Google wants some assurance that the file really was downloaded then. (Continue reading at www.informationweek.com)

My Two Cents: Let me sum this up as a software developer. Shame on you Google, you will lose this case big time to Oracle, you cannot use someone elses property then resale it, or give it away. Its not yours to do so. You must develop the software yourself, or purchase a license. This includes any APIs, which is software code that is owned by Oracle. This is a pretty closed case here. Once proof is provided by Oracle and Google cannot dispute that the Java code is not theirs, then Google is liable for this. I feel as a software developer, people should go to jail over this. Its so easy to use other people’s code who we spend countless hours developing outside the box, when it doesn’t exist. Very sad to see that this happened. I am sure Justice will be served here.

Voice technology: A real conversation-starter (www.startribune.com)

Voice recognition software works by sending speech to processors that break down spoken words into sound waves and use algorithms to identify the most likely words formed by the sounds. The system typically records and stores speech so it can teach itself to become more accurate over time. (Continue reading at www.startribune.com)

My Two Cents: Voice recognition software has been around for a very long time, especially with IVR systems. What I find exciting today is how accurate the new systems are, and where these systems are turning up. I find the Apple Siri system very useful when sending text. I also find foreign language translation very useful too. We are now leveraging this technology with our inspection and workflow systems in the field, which as been a huge success.

LinkedIn is a hacker’s dream tool (www.cnn.com)

If you use LinkedIn, you’ve probably told the site where you work, what you do and who you work with. That’s a gold mine for hackers, who are increasingly savvy in using that kind of public but personal information for pinpoint attacks. LinkedIn’s vulnerability is inextricably tied to its growth. The site now has 150 million users almost twice as many as it had just one year ago. As its database grows richer, its value increases for both its members and those wishing to exploit them. (Continue reading at www.cnn.com)

My Two Cents: LinkedIn is a good tool, but it is a social networking site, and you MUST be careful. This article is correct about what to share and what not to share.

FCC warns of looming mobile spectrum crunch (www.cnn.com)

The Federal Communication Commission predicts a “looming spectrum crunch” in a recently published paper, Mobile Broadband: The Benefits of Additional Spectrum. The agency predicts that U.S. mobile data users will start feeling the spectrum crunch within five years. Users of smartphones, tablets, PC aircards and MiFi-style routers, and even feature phones will feel this pinch. It will hinder the speed, quality, performance and reliability of wireless broadband connections. Users of iPhones in California’s Bay Area and several other metro regions have found out in the last several years what a spectrum crunch feels like. When a carrier like AT&T faces a far greater demand for data than its network hardware can deliver, users end up waiting and waiting for Web pages, maps, apps and more to update. E-mails take a long time to download, and sending photos or video slows to a snail’s pace. (Continue reading at www.cnn.com)

My Two Cents: Here in New York City I have experienced this spectrum crunch during the New York Philharmonic Concerts in Central Park. When you have close to a Million people on the lawn for the concert all calling, texting, and emailing at the same time, the spectrum is over-loaded, your mobile device does not work. So we take colored balloons for everyone to find us at the concert. So what needs to happen in the future is the FCC will need to permit more spectrum frequencies to carriers or hand out balloons. Of course cleaning the noise on existing spectrum frequencies can help and mobile devices can be re-engineered not to waste bandwidth. There are a lot of ways to fix this problem. Which makes this field exciting.