Facebook is making ‘Facebook at Work’

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg speaks to students during an special assembly at Sequoia High School in Redwood City, Calif. on Thursday, Sept. 18, 2014. Zuckerberg participated in the assembly as part of Facebook’s campaign to 

encourage students to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and math or what are otherwise known as STEM fields.

Facebook is working on extending its network beyond the social realm and into the professional world, reports technology-based news site Mashable.

The company’s new, enterprise-focused product will be similar to the functionality of its current site, with a newsfeed, groups and messaging capability, Mashable said quoting the Financial Times.

However, it will also include collaborative tools for work on shared documents. Facebook at Work will be entirely separate from personal accounts, with no information from a user’s social profile appearing on his or her professional page, and vice versa.

Facebook at Work is currently in an early pilot programme that is based out of London. At the time of this writing, it does not host advertising.

Facebook employees are known to use the site internally for work. Creating a new, separate network for businesses would bring the company into competition with Google, Microsoft and IBM, which all offer enterprise tools.

A Facebook representative declined to comment.

Meet the youngest ever computer specialist

A schoolboy has become the world’s youngest qualified computer specialist after passing a Microsoft Windows exam at the age of just five.

Ayan Qureshi has only just started primary school, but passed the test at Birmingham City University to become a Microsoft Certified Professional.

In doing so he has set a new world record for the youngest person ever to pass a Microsoft exam – at the age of five years and 11 months, beating the previous record held by six-year-old Mehroz Yawar from Pakistan.

Ayan was first introduced to computers when he was just three, by his father Asim, 43, who soon realised his son’s natural aptitude for technology.

The IT consultant then built his son a computer lab at the family’s home in Coventry, West Midlands and started preparing Ayan for the complex Microsoft test.

After just five months training, Ayan sat the ‘Supporting Windows 8.1′ assessment for IT professionals alongside several adult candidates, even though at five he will not be able to work for another eight years.

Ayan breezed through the two hour exam in September and even finished with time to spare before finding out shortly afterwards he had passed.

The test is normally taken just before or after university by young adults aiming to be information technology technicians.

Sections of the assessment included multiple choice, fill in the blanks, drag and drop, and several scenario based questions.

The computer based outline test examined the applicants’ knowledge of hardware, software, and their understanding of how Windows works.

According to employment laws, the youngest age a child can work part-time is 13, except children involved in areas such as acting and modelling, who can work as long as they have a performance licence.

Children over 13 can work for 12 hours a week in term time, and 25 during school holidays.

- Mail Online

Google Bus launched in Bangladesh

Google Bus has been launched in Bangladesh to train its half a million of college and university students the use of Internet.

State Minister for Information Communication Technology Junaid Ahmed Polok inaugurated Google Bus Bangladesh project, at Bangabandhu International conference centre on Wednesday morning.

Google signs 60-year, $1 billion NASA lease

Google has signed a long-term lease for part of a historic Navy air base, where it plans to renovate three massive hangars and use them for projects involving aviation, space exploration and robotics.

The giant Internet company will pay $1.16 billion in rent over 60 years for the property, which also includes a working air field, golf course and other buildings. The 1,000-acre site is part of the former Moffett Field Naval Air Station on the San Francisco Peninsula.

Google plans to invest more than $200 million to refurbish the hangars and add other improvements, including a museum or educational facility that will showcase the history of Moffett and Silicon Valley, according to a NASA statement.

The agency said a Google subsidiary called Planetary Ventures LLC will use the hangars for “research, development, assembly and testing in the areas of space exploration, aviation, rover/robotics and other emerging technologies.”

Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin have a well-known interest in aviation and space. The company has recently acquired several smaller firms that are working on satellite technology and robotics.

But a Google spokesperson declined Monday to discuss specific plans for the property, which is located just a few miles from the company’s main campus in Mountain View.

NASA plans to continue operating its Ames Research Center on the former Navy site. Google will take over operations at the runways and hangars, including a massive structure that was built to house dirigible-style Navy airships in the 1930s. NASA said the deal will save it $6.3 million in annual maintenance and operation costs.

Local officials praised Google’s promise to restore the historic structure known as Hangar One, which is a San Francisco Bay Area landmark. U.S. Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Palo Alto, called the lease agreement “a major win for our region.”

Google already has a separate lease for another portion of the former air base, where it wants to build a second campus.

Page and Brin have also used the Moffett runways for their collection of private jets, under another lease arrangement that’s been criticized by some watchdog groups who say NASA gave the executives a sweetheart deal.

- AP, San Francisco

Honda debuts new hydrogen fuel cell concept

Honda FCV Concept

While Toyota’s Mirai is set to go on sale in the US next year, Honda has unveiled its own FCV concept, heralding the manufacture of a new sedan to be launched in 2016.

Honda promises that the FCV Concept (Fuel Cell Vehicle) can travel 300 miles (or more than 480 km) on a single tank of hydrogen and be refueled in under five minutes.

The production model (claiming approx. 130 hp) will comfortably seat up to five people and will be launched in Japan and North America first, with Europe to follow.

Honda has already launched a very limited edition fuel cell electric sedan in Japan and in the US: the FCX Clarity.

This year at the Los Angeles Auto Show, the brand is expected to provide details on its plans to expand its public hydrogen refueling station network in the US.

Honda’s announcement parallels Toyota’s FCV project, which was first unveiled as a concept at the Paris Auto Show and went on to become the Mirai. The sedan will launch next year in Germany, Denmark, Great Britain and the United

States.

Emitting only water vapor, fuel cell electric vehicles produce zero carbon emissions.

- Relaxnews