Editor Blogs

April 2020

Companies Relying on Cameras, AI to Ensure Social Distancing

Jason Lomberg, North American Editor, PSD

We live in a very litigious society. This past weekend, I found myself at a funeral in Pennsylvania, where the official limit for public gatherings is 10 people. Even at something as emotional as a funeral, no one wanted to assume liability for too many people in one place – the funeral wouldn’t even officially co

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04/27/2020

Autonomous Delivery Vehicles to Deploy in California

Jason Lomberg, North American Editor, PSD

A Toyota startup wants to make it easier for you to stay home – if you live in Irvine, California. The Chinese subsidiary, Pony.ai, plans to deploy autonomous delivery vehicles in a pilot program lasting through the summer. In the past, we’ve covered autonomous delivery robots, a ride-share program that doubles

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04/19/2020

The Terrafugia Transition flying car prototype. It's definitely ... a thing.

The Air Force Wants to see Your Flying Cars

Jason Lomberg, North American Editor, PSD

The U.S. Air Force has a way for flying cars to bypass at least one layer of red tape – test them out on military ranges. You can’t help but admire their chutzpah – the poster child for lumbering, bureaucratic beasts wants to help you skirt the rules. Anything off a military base faces the draconian scrutiny

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04/13/2020

IBM Offers Free COBOL Training to Address Shortage

Jason Lomberg, North American Editor, PSD

IBM is stepping up to help address a problem that probably shouldn’t exist. We previously mentioned New Jersey’s desperate plea for coders who understood COBOL, a 60-year-old, largely obsolete computer language. The “Garden State” hasn’t exactly kept with the times, and their 362,000 unemployment f

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04/12/2020

NJ Needs Programmers who Know 60-year-old Computer Language

Jason Lomberg, North American Editor, PSD

Turns out many New Jersey computers still run a programming language that predates the moon landing. NJ Gov. Phil Murphy has put out a call for volunteers who know Common Business Oriented Language (COBOL), a programming language that goes back to 1959. Most coders have moved away from it, but according to Reuter

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04/10/2020

New Development Would Turn Windows into Solar Panels

Jason Lomberg, North American Editor, PSD

Those door-to-door salesmen hawking residential solar panels might have a new hustle soon – a California startup wants to use windows to harvest energy. The company has developed transparent solar cells to hopefully make their name a reality – Ubiquitous Energy. Their ClearView Power windows would essential

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04/06/2020

Do you need a license for this?

Butt-Cleaning Robot Solves Your Toilet Paper Woes

Jason Lomberg, North American Editor, PSD

Coronavirus got ya down? Does the TP aisle at your local Walmart look like a George Romero flick? The Useless Duck Company has a solution. Let’s face it – toilet paper is wasteful (and impossible to find in our new, post-apocalyptic reality), and bidets are inefficient. So the DIY superstars at UDC took a custom ci

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Date:

04/01/2020