Every year, MongoDB holds their user conference, where they roll out the latest product announcements, offer one-on-one technical support, and hold keynotes that send shockwaves through the world of data.
This year, they’re still holding it. It’s just going to be fully virtual.
MongoDB.live brings all the stuff to the table that MongoDB’s typical annual conference does—just without any physical tables. Highlights include:
Keynote: Hear about the future of data development, including MongoDB’s latest products and feature rollouts.
“Ask the Experts” 1:1 Technical Consulting Sessions: Whether you sign up in advance or nab a “walk-up appointment,” a MongoDB technical expert will get your questions answered in a free 20 minute session.
Given the threats presented by geo-political tensions, regional conflicts and terrorism, not to mention the vital obligations of disaster relief and humanitarian work, there is plenty of justification for a large military budget. However, with the coronavirus now responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths across the world, what would happen if large portions of military budgets had been set aside in preparation for a pandemic such as COVID-19? Greenpeace asked that very question after SIPRI published its latest data. Its results are undoubtedly interesting but of course it has to be said that nobody could foresee what specific medical equipment would be necessary to contain the next global pandemic. Read more.
PetSmart has upset workers — and put people’s health at risk — by reopening dog grooming salons that promise to get dogs “ready for spring with a new do.”
The cruise line Holland America is planning to force some crew members to remain on board ships without passengers — and to stop paying those crew members, The Washington Post reported.
And Marriott International, as The Times’s Peter Goodman reports, has “begun furloughing most of its American workers, jeopardizing their access to health care, even as the company paid out more than $160 million in quarterly dividends and pursued a raise for its chief executive.”
Is there any remedy for companies that are behaving badly amid the coronavirus pandemic? There is at least a partial one: attention.
If employees, journalists and — most important — customers call attention to selfish behavior that endangers people, there is at least a chance that companies will stop it. That is, they will decide that the cost of the bad publicity isn’t worth it. Or maybe a company’s executives will even suffer a crisis of confidence.
As Judd Legum, a lawyer and journalist who writes the Popular Information newsletter, told me:
Corporations are always concerned about new information that could harm their reputation with customers, but the pandemic has intensified their sensitivity. Today, a corporation that customers believe is not showing sufficient concern for the safety of its customers and employees could incur severe damage. So companies are willing to take significant action to avoid that fate.
Legum would know. His reporting in recent weeks has helped cause changes at two major companies.
When the coronavirus crisis began, both the Darden restaurant company and Kroger supermarkets — which together employ about 600,000 people — kept in place restrictive sick leave policies that had the potential to worsen the outbreak.
Many Kroger workers could get paid leave only if they tested positive for the virus, even though testing remained limited. And Darden, which operates Capital Grille, Olive Garden and other chains, didn’t offer paid leave unless a state mandated it.
But soon after Legum wrote about the companies’ policies, both companies changed their policies and expanded leave. As Susan Hanway, one of Legum’s readers, wrote: “In the better late than never department. On the other hand, how many people have gotten sick due to their slow response?”
Do you know of other companies behaving badly? Drop me an email, at Leonhardt@nytimes.com, with “do better” in the subject line.
Wireless communications have existed for over a century, but it wasn’t until the late 1970s and early 1980s that they became a commercially viable consumer service. The first generation (1G) of wireless technology systems came with the introduction of cell phones. These devices and networks allowed for mobile voice calls, but nothing more.
The second generation (2G) provided improvements to voice calling and introduced text messaging via SMS (and later media messaging via MMS), which ultimately helped the cellular industry to gain widespread adoption in the early 2000s. Later iterations of 2G introduced data transmission, but it wasn’t until 1998 that 3G allowed for media-rich applications like mobile internet browsing and video calling.
The most recent iterations of 3G are able to reach data speeds up to 4 Mbps. The most recent generation of wireless technology, known to consumers as 4G (now 4G LTE), is able to reach real-world speeds of between 10-50 Mbps, depending on the carrier. These speeds allow for mobile online gaming, live stream HD-TV, group video conferencing, connected home solutions, and even emerging experiences like AR/VR.
That said, downloading or buffering is typically required at 4G speeds. For most consumers, this is a small price to pay for media-rich wireless freedom. But for industries like transportation or healthcare, latency (the delay before data transfer) can have a direct impact on system outcomes. For example, 5G will enable near-instant communication between autonomous vehicles — communication that may prevent fatal accidents. 5G will have the biggest impact on these mission-critical systems while also providing the necessary infrastructure for tomorrow’s connected technologies.
What is 5G wireless technology?
5G is the next (and fifth) generation of wireless technology systems. It will provide speeds faster than any previous generation, comparable to those delivered via fiber-optic cables. Early testing of this technology shows real-world speeds of 700-3000 Mbps (3 Gbps), which consumers may experience once 5G becomes commercially available. Movies that took minutes to download with 4G will take seconds with 5G.
While smartphones and other mobile devices are the obvious use cases for 5G, there are many other applications for the technology. The internet of things (IoT), for example, will benefit tremendously from the speed and bandwidth provided by 5G, especially as the industry grows: Gartner estimates that over 20B IoT units will be installed by 2020, while IoT-related spending will reach nearly $3T. Autonomous vehicles, robotic surgery, and critical infrastructure monitoring are just a few of the potential applications of 5G-enabled IoT.
Video calling and conferencing app Zoom shot to the top of the U.S. download charts in the previous week, logging 3.2 million new downloads as Americans worked from home in unprecedented numbers. However, problems with the software’s encryption have left many users wary of data security, hacking of personal devices and even uninvited guests hijacking meetings. According to a ranking by Priori Data across Android and Apple Store platforms, video chatting apps – professional and otherwise – generally are in high demand nationwide, with Google’s Hangouts Meet and Houseparty also in the top 5. Read more.
The report shows that out of all OECD countries, the U.S. spent the most on its health system in 2018 - equivalent to 16.9 percent of GDP. That's over $10,000 per person when adjusted for purchasing power. Northern Italy is generally regarded as having one of the world's best health systems but it couldn't cope with scale of the country's coronavirus outbreak, particularly due to a chronic lack of ventilators and overburdened ICU capacity. Italy's health expenditure is equivalent to 8.8 percent of its GDP and Spain's is similar, though ever so slightly higher, equivalent to 8.9 percent of GDP. Read more.
