TECH INSTALLER

Germany will be the guest country in the Fun & Serious of Bilbao

The appointment with the world of videojuego, that goes by its seventh edition, will take place between the 8 and the 11 of December

     The seventh edition of the Fun & Serious Game Festival has a date: it will take place between 8 and 11 December in Bilbao and on this occasion the country invited to the event will be Germany. Both video game fans who will have access to competitions, prizes, talks and meetings with great figures of the sector - as well as industry professionals - who will have endless opportunities for training, meeting and business - have their space on the festival's agenda, which will be made public in the coming weeks.

    Germany has a more powerful, mature and voluminous videogame sector. With 4,378 million euros in profits, the German video game market is not only the most notable in Europe, but also one of the largest in the world (since its sales account for 5.5% of the international total). For the rest, its renowned international fair Gamescom, held annually in Cologne, is an unmissable event, the most popular and recognized in the continent.

In the words of Alfonso Gómez, director of the festival: "The DNA of Fun & Serious is to promote the videogame industry in all its facets: production, distribution, promotion to the final consumer and even the institutional framework where the activity takes place. Germany is the largest European market and a benchmark at a strategic level that has achieved per capita consumption 30% higher than Spanish, not only we have much to learn from this country, but also many ways to collaborate

Fun & Serious Game Festival will culminate with the traditional prize-giving gala at the Guggenheim Museum, which will be attended by important international figures of the video game to collect the Titanium prizes to the different categories of the industry. Iconic names of the universe 'gamer' as the creators of Sonic, Yuji Naka; Tetris, Alexey Pajitnov; Electronic Arts, Trip Hawkins; Candy Crush, Tommy Palm or Monkey Island, Tim Schafer, have been awarded in previous editions of the festival.

The festival is already an unrenounceable meeting point for the industry, and aims to raise videogames to the category of an art such as cinema or music. The aim is to give relevance to a sector that has invoiced 1,913,050 million euros in Spain during 2016 (according to Newzoo [1]), and which, according to SuperData forecasts for 2017, will reach 4,6 billion dollars of benefits this year and audiences of 665 million audiences worldwide, much more numerous than those of the powerful Spanish, German or American football leagues. 480 companies are dedicated to videogames in Spain and generate employment.

Meeting point

Within the Festival, the Games Industry Forum (GIF) will be held, already tested last year, but reinforced in this edition, inspired by the Industry Club and Marché Du Film of the film festivals, it will have a new tool of matchMaking, of way that will suppose a stimulating and effective meeting point for the representatives of this industry: networking, inspiration and development.

In addition, the business aspect of the GIF is reinforced with the GIF Market, a meeting point between independent studies with publishers and investors, two of the most difficult areas for any young company in the industry. The GIF Market will be the best networking and b2b tool in the industry in Spain, as well as serving as a space for training, learning and knowledge exchange and as a showcase for new professionals.

Call for investors and publishers

The Fun & Serious Game Festival will bring together in one day the best talent of independent development in Spain, as well as the representatives of the most important companies and agents of the video game industry in our country and important international names. If you want to know more about the Festival and how to go, write us here.

Another of the main novelties of this year are the talks and meetings #creadoresqueinspire, which will take place within the framework of the Fun Zone, in a heterogeneous and eclectic meeting where the great creators of videogames and other artistic disciplines such as cinema, music , the comic or the TV will meet.

The Fun Zone in the Euskalduna Palace, the place where the general public will be able to see, play and enjoy the latest novelties in video games, is also enlarged thanks to GAME eSports. The high competition of eSports will take place in two auditoriums, where the best teams of the GAME STADIUM will compete, seeking to be crowned champions of the Second Season. In addition, attendees will have more than 200 gaming stands with the most innovative titles on the market. Virtual Reality will be one of the highlights of the Fun Zone, one of the biggest phenomena in the world of video games in recent years.

Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft, dies at 65

The entrepreneur died Monday afternoon in Seattle because of a cancer in blood lymphocytes

   Paul Allen , who founded the Microsoft company 43 years ago with Bill Gates , which would revolutionize the world of software and personal computers forever, died on Monday at age 65, his family reported.

In a statement, Allen's relatives have specified that the entrepreneur died on Monday afternoon in Seattle (in the state of Washington, where Microsoft is based) because of a non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a cancer in blood lymphocytes . «My brother was an incredible individual at all levels. Although many know Paul Allen as a technology expert and philanthropist, for us he was a very dear brother and uncle, and an exceptional friend, "said the deceased's sister, Jody Allen.

With a fortune valued at 21.7 billion dollars, he was the forty-fourth richest person in the world

Despite always staying in the shadow of his partner and friend since adolescence, Bill Gates, Allen was passionate about computer science and was a key figure in the creation of Microsoft in 1975. According to Forbes magazine, with a fortune valued at 21,700 million dollars, Allen, born in Seattle in 1953, was the forty-fourth richest person in the world .

   With the money made with the software company, Allen created with his sister Jody the conglomerate Vulcan Inc, based in Seattle, which is responsible for managing their private investments and their philanthropic tasks . His work in solidarity includes the creation of organizations dedicated to research such as the Allen Institute for Brain Science, the Institute for Artificial Intelligence and the Cellular Science Institute.

Microsoft's co-founder was also the owner of a professional football team, the Seahawks of Seattle; of one of basketball, the Trail Blazers of Portland; and partial owner of one football, the Seattle Sounders.

«Girls with leadership skills can not be labeled as 'bossy'»

Alicia Asín, co-founder of Libelium and EU Innovative Women Award: "Everyone knows what a doctor or a lawyer does, but not the variety of outputs of an engineer"

Alicia Asín is co-founder and CEO of Libelium, a company that designs and manufactures wireless sensors for the so-called 'internet of things'. This engineer has a Master's degree in Systems Engineering and Computer Science from the Polytechnic Center of the University of Zaragoza and is a graduate of Cambridge Judge Business School and ESADE and has been awarded multiple times for her business merits and technological innovation.

Young, engineer, entrepreneur and woman, it seems sad that it is a 'rare avis' but feels comfortable in the role of role model, that in which girls can be inspired to bet on technical studies for their professional career. In this interview we review his professional career and his expectations for the future.

-It's been 11 years since you formed your company. What is your assessment of this journey?

-The road of entrepreneurship is full of sacrifices and constant effort to achieve balance between curves and obstacles that must be overcome on a daily basis. The balance is very positive because the hard moments we have had to overcome, such as the fire of our facilities in 2014 or the adverse financial results at the beginning, are compensated with the satisfaction of having built a source of wealth generation and employment in Spain

. I have learned that nothing lasts forever, nor are potholes impassable, and successes allow you to relax, you have to have emotional stability when running a business.

- How did Lebelium? What has been the simplest and most complicated part of this adventure?

-Simple has not been anything. When my partner, David Gascón, and I were students, we set up this start-up and we still were not aware of the trajectory we had before us. The sensor networks offered countless applications and based on that potential we decided to bet on the design of hardware devices when everyone told us that the key was in the software and nobody knew what is now called 'the Internet of Things ' What we are most proud of is that we have managed to design a sensor platform that is compatible with all the major multinationals such as IBM, Microsoft, Ericsson, Telit, Indra and up to 54 cloud partners that make our technology capable of connecting any sensor to the Internet. through any wireless communication protocol.

«I am aware that I have unusual qualities in the sector; it's sad to be a 'rara avis' »

-He has received many awards, such as Jaime I in the Entrepreneur category, and was the first woman to receive the CEAJE award called the Young Entrepreneur National Award. She has recently been recognized as one of the best innovative women in the EU. What do all these awards mean? Do they help? Do you stay with any of them?

-All the prizes have been important for me and for Libelium. Not only because of the recognition they imply for our work or for the economic endowment that they entail, but also for the repercussion that we have achieved thanks to them so that Libelium is known inside and outside our borders. In addition, with each award we feel the responsibility to continue growing and improving our results to correspond to the entities that grant it to us. When you are awarded a prize you remain in debt to prove your merit eternally.

-The majority of Libelium's business is international. Is it difficult to do international business from Spain?

-The origins of Libelium on the threshold of the crisis led us to an international vocation. From the beginning we plan the entire structure of the company and the documentation of our products for the international market. We have clients in more than 120 countries and we have a network of 37 distributors in the five continents that contribute to our technology being present in large-scale projects in which the experience of a local partner is needed. In addition, our positioning on the Internet has allowed us to reach different types of clients, from Universities that seek to equip their laboratories with our devices, to large system integrators that are deploying sensor networks in smart cities projects around the world.

- There is a lot of talk about the absence of women in the technology sector. You are an engineer, entrepreneur, young man and woman. Do you feel 'role model'?

-I am aware that I have many qualities that are not very common but the sad thing is that it is a "rare avis" in an increasingly technological world and in which greater equality is demanded. I would like to be the mirror so that the young women who have to choose their professional future will see a model of inspiration with which to achieve everything that they propose.

 If we want to achieve wage equality, women have to choose positions of greater responsibility in companies and that is more easily achieved by studying engineering and scientific-technical careers in this increasingly digital world. The figure of women in artistic professions is highly promoted and when they are small they all want to be teachers, nurses, hairdressers or actresses.

"Everyone knows what a doctor or a lawyer does, but not the variety of outputs of an engineer"

- Do you think this type of figure is necessary? How can we get more girls interested in STEM?

-I've never been in favor of joint quotas and it bothers me a lot when the condition of a woman stands out when I receive a prize because they do not give it to me for being a woman but for the merits achieved. However, I do consider it necessary to promote equality so that future generations see in the technological sector and in scientific and mathematical studies their projection platform. For that, it is also necessary that the education sector promotes the figure of the great teachers of subjects such as mathematics, physics or chemistry that consolidate the base of the students. Many flee from these disciplines as a result of having had a bad teacher in their teenage years. And that does a lot when it comes to choosing future studies.

 Also on the part of the Universities it is necessary to approach the young people towards those professions of the future so that they imagine themselves in their professional life. Everyone knows what a doctor, a fireman or a lawyer does but few people imagine the varied professional career of an engineer.

- Where do you see in 5 years? What objective or challenge would you like to achieve?

- In our sector a year is already a long time to predict what will happen. My future project is to continue to grow Libelium to position it in the first position of IoT technology in the world.

Facebook will eliminate the content on designs for the manufacture of weapons with 3D printers

The Californian company has not clarified if it will only erase the publications or if it will also delete related pages and profiles

Facebook has assured this Thursday that it will eliminate the content related to the instructions to make weapons in 3D printers, as reported by a spokesman for the company, at a time when the debate on access to weapons in the United States is intensifying.

" Sharing instructions on how to make firearms using 3D printers is not allowed under our community standards . In line with our policies, we are eliminating this Facebook content, "the social network said.

Facebook has not clarified if it would only delete related publications or if it would also remove pages and profiles, but has said that it would soon share an update of its policy on restricted articles.

Robert Lasnik, a US judge, blocked the publication of a series of instructions and designs for the manufacture of weapons with 3D printers earlier this month.

Lasnik indicated that the dissemination of instructions could cause irreparable damage to US citizens since this type of weapons could not be detected by certain security systems.

Trump, against the creation of weapons

The president of the United States, Donald Trump, considered days before that "it does not make much sense" to sell weapons made with 3D printers in the middle of the controversy generated by a judicial agreement that several states of the country are trying to overthrow to prevent this type of weaponry from beginning. to circulate

«I am analyzing the sale to the public of 3D plastic weapons. I have already spoken with the NRA (National Rifle Association). It does not seem to make much sense, "the New York mogul wrote in his official account of the social network Twitter.

Trump refers to a judicial agreement that the Government reached last June with Cody Wilson, author of a manual to print 3D weapons, by virtue of which the non-profit entity Defense Distributed may publish it on the Internet.

Defense Distributed announced that the manuals would be online again on August 1 , but as they had been published before the litigation, more than a thousand people have had access to these instructions, according to US officials.

They discover a security breach in WhatsApp that allows to hack the chats

The hackers could modify the messages, publish them in a group supplanting one of the members or send a message to a single user making it go through a group

Israeli cybersecurity specialist CheckPoint announced Wednesday that it discovered a bug in the WhatsApp messaging application, which allows users to read and modify messages sent in a group or a private conversation.

According to CheckPoint, hackers could act in conversations in three different ways : by modifying messages posted by a person, posting a message in a group by posing as one of the participants and sending a specific message to a member of a group by passing it on for a group message.

The cybersecurity company is concerned about the massive manipulations that could be carried out taking advantage of this error and recalled the cases of false rumors spread in recent years through this application, in countries such as India and Brazil, which led to lynchings of people.

WhatsApp said in a statement that it had "carefully examined this problem [...] There is no security problem in the encryption of the application , which guarantees that only the sender and receiver can read their message exchange".

Greater danger in groups

CheckPoint highlighted the consequences that such a failure could have at times like an election period, since "WhatsApp plays an increasingly important role there, particularly in developing countries".

"In the important groups, to which cascades of messages are sent, there is little chance that a member takes the time to verify one of the information disseminated, so he could easily be fooled," the company adds.

In this sense, WhatsApp affirms that it takes "the challenge of misinformation in a very serious way and that it recently integrated a limit in the message chains and modified the chat groups". "We also veto users who try to modify the application to circumvent these limits," he adds.

WhatsApp, founded in 2009 and acquired by Facebook in 2014, said earlier this year that it had more than 1,500 million users and that 65,000 million messages a day are exchanged in its application

They sue Google for the unwanted monitoring of their users

The complaint, which aims to be collective, seeks compensation for violating privacy

Google knows where we are despite having the 'location history' turned off. And this does not please our privacy. Hence, a lawsuit in federal court has accused the technological giant of invading the privacy of people by tracking the whereabouts of smartphones despite not activating the location option.

The lawsuit filed Friday by a man in California seeks compensation for unspecified damages and the class-action lawsuit status to represent all US iPhone and Android mobile users who have deactivated the 'location history', so that Google does not Record your movements.

"Google expressly indicated to the users of its operating system and its applications that the activation of certain configurations would prevent the tracking of users' geolocations," the complaint states, adding that this statement "is false."

AP, through a group of researchers, confirmed that Google continues to collect our location using other applications and services, such as Google Maps, every time we do a search in Chrome or consult the weather forecast, including through third-party applications.

That is, if we deactivate the 'Location History' we only prevent Google from storing our movements within a timeline, but will continue to do so through other means, although we will not be able to see it.

Create a GPS to track future smart implants under the skin

Employs wireless radio signals to detect implantable devices within the body

«A GPS in the body», this is how the creators of ReMix have baptized the new device. Born in the facilities of the Laboratory of Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence of MIT, this small invention is ready to locate implants or smart capsules within the human body.

ReMix works with wireless radio signals capable of detecting devices implanted within a body. In the first tests, the MIT scientists placed a chip inside a false tumor that they placed in different forms of animal tissue.

The tests were carried out on several different tissues: a whole chicken, a container full of fat from this animal, pig belly and a fake human tissue. The results have been positive and achieved an average location accuracy of 1.4 centimeters in animal tissues.

However, it is not the same to use backscattering, the method by which ReMix works, in vacuum or air than in the human body, because the properties of tissues vary. The first tests have been satisfactory, although MIT scientists are still working on the tests, which will be presented at the SIGCOMM conference to be held in Budapest, the capital of Hungary.

ReMix, if the research is satisfactory, will allow a boost to the implantation of chips under the skin and in the future locate these implants to improve cancer treatments with the tracking of tumors by markers or administer drugs more precisely.