Zuckerberg, Ambode and the emerging IT revolution in Lagos

Both are young, articulate, dynamic and share a similar passion for quality education delivery. Both are also driven by futuristic ideas with a global vision. Incidentally too, both are information-savvy philanthropists and providers of veritable platforms for the youths to freely express their views. But while one is a Jewish-American, the other is Omo Naija gon-goni, as we describe true-born Nigerians in Pidgin English parlance. Yet, there is still more to their point of convergence than people may readily admit. But who really are we talking about here?
The first of course, is Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook .
His name certainly rings a loud and crisp-clear note in the vast firmament of our knowledge- economy that drives several global thoughts and processes, virtually on daily basis. He, along with his friends, Dustin Moskovitz, Chris Hughes and Eduardo Saverin, by their sheer creative ingenuity came up with the site which allows users to create their own profiles, upload photos and communicate with other users. That was in 2004. By the end of that year it had reached 1 million users. But it has since grown to more than 250 million people, over the past 12 years, making Zuckerberg a billionaire.

Hackers cripple US internet in wide-scale cyber attack

Several of the world’s best-known websites were inaccessible across parts of the United States on Friday after hackers unleashed a series of attacks on a company that acts as a switchboard for the internet.
The attacks affected access to Twitter, Paypal, Spotify and other customers of the infrastructure company in New Hampshire called Dyn, which processes large volumes of internet traffic.
“The attacks came in waves,” Al Jazeera’s Rob Reynolds, reporting from Los Angeles, said. “First targeting the East Coast of the United States, spreading then to the other parts of the country and even to Western Europe.”
“The websites that were disrupted were some of the top names in the internet: CNN and the New York Times, AirBnB, Reddit, HBO… a whole variety of sites were attacked.”
“Dyn is kind of a middle man that directs users to different websites and routes traffic from server to server in a complex way,” said Reynolds.

Facebook apologises for removing cancer video

Facebook has apologised for taking down a breast cancer awareness video because the images were flagged as offensive, saying the move was “an error”.
Swedish cancer charity Cancerfonden said Thursday that its video explaining to women how to check for suspicious lumps, featuring animated figures of women with circle-shaped breasts, had been removed from the US social networking site.
“We find it incomprehensible and strange how one can perceive medical information as offensive,” Cancerfonden communications director Lena Biornstad told AFP.
“This is information that saves lives,” she said. “This prevents us from doing so.”
In a tongue-and-cheek open letter to Facebook, Cancerfonden had offered a different version of the offending round cartoon breasts.
“After having tried to meet your rules for several days without succeeding, we have now reached

Turkish Airlines bans Galaxy Note 7 from all flights

Turkey’s flagship carrier Turkish Airlines on Friday said it has banned Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7 smartphones from all of its flights with immediate effect after reports of fire risk.
“Samsung Galaxy Note 7 devices can no longer be transported on person, in carry-on baggage, in checked bags or as air cargo on all Turkish Airlines flights with immediate effect,” the company said in a warning note to passengers on its website.

Scientists discover giant, long-necked dinosaur species in Australia

Scientists unveiled fossils Thursday from a new species of giant, long-necked dinosaur unearthed in northeast Australia, speculating that its ancestors had trekked across Antarctica some 105 million years ago.
At least 14 metres (45 feet) from head-to-tail, Savannasaurus elliottorum was a plant-chomping, barrel-chested member of the sauropod group, which includes the largest land animals to ever have roamed the planet.
The discovery, along with a specimen of another sauropod called Diamantinasaurus matildae, was detailed in the Nature journal Scientific Reports.
Palaeontologists nicknamed the two dinos Wade and Matilda. Both species are thought to be unique to Australia.
How and when these and other dinosaurs made it Down Under is a source of ongoing debate, and the new find is sure to add fuel to the fire.

Germany asks Tesla to stop using ‘Autopilot’ in advertising

German Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt has asked Tesla to stop advertising its electric vehicles as having an Autopilot function as this might suggest drivers’ attention is not needed, his ministry said on Sunday.
A spokeswoman for the ministry, confirming a report in the daily Bild am Sonntag (BamS), said the Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) had written to Tesla to make the request.
“It can be confirmed that a letter to Tesla exists with the request to no longer use the misleading term Autopilot for the driver assistance system of the car,” she said in a written response to a Reuters’ query.
A Tesla spokeswoman said the Autopilot term, describing a system operating in conjunction with a human driver, had been used in aerospace for decades, and that the company had always made

Samsung announces it is killing Galaxy Note 7 smartphone

Samsung has announced it is permanently halting production of the Galaxy Note 7 smartphone, a gadget that was intended to propel a comeback but instead has engulfed the South Korea company in a major corporate crisis.
Samsung had a been on a roll earlier this year with the introduction of the Galaxy 7, which saw its mobile sales pickup after a couple of rough years. The Galaxy Note 7, with its bigger design and stylus, also came just as rival Apple was seeing a first-time-ever slump in iPhone sales.
Any sense of victory, however, quickly turned sour amid reports of exploding Galaxy Note 7s. The company initiated a clumsy recall process that left consumers confused and angry. It seemed to finally stop the bleeding with the delivery or replacement units.
However, in recent weeks, new reports emerged that at least three replacement units had exploded.

Self-driving car with passengers to be tested on UK streets for first time

A driverless vehicle carrying passengers will take to Britain’s public roads for the first time on Tuesday, as part of trials aimed at paving the way for autonomous cars to hit the highways by the end of the decade.
The government is encouraging technology companies, carmakers and start-ups to develop and test their autonomous driving technologies in Britain, aiming to build an industry to serve a worldwide market which it forecasts could be worth around 900 billion pounds ($1.1 trillion) by 2025.
Earlier this year, it launched a consultation on changes to insurance rules and motoring regulations to allow driverless cars to be used by 2020 and said it would allow such vehicles to be tested on motorways from next year.
A pod – like a small two-seater car – developed by a company spun out from Oxford University