The work day’s done, and now it’s time to catch up on the news. We’ve pulled together the day’s top stories, just in case you missed them.
Today, we ran the full gamut of good and bad news stories, with everything from Budget 2016, to controversial metadata retention laws in Australia, to Facebook launching in-app shopping capabilities making headlines.
1. Budget 2016: changes to income and capital gains tax for entrepreneurs
Much needed changes to Ireland’s capital gains tax aimed at incentivising entrepreneurs were announced by Finance Minister Michael Noonan TD in Budget 2016. Furthermore, the addition of an Earned Income Tax Credit will ensure that SME employers will have a rate of take-home pay in line with their similarly-paid employees.
2. Twitter to cut 8pc of worldwide workforce, Irish fate unknown
Twitter is making rather significant cuts to its employee numbers after confirming it is to shed 8pc of its staff – approximately 336 people – as part of its efforts to streamline its engineering team. It is unclear whether any of these cuts will take place at the social media giant’s Dublin operations.
3. Too early to say what impact Dell and EMC merger will have on Irish workforce
It has to be the biggest merger in the history of the tech industry, but the US$67bn deal between Dell and EMC is most likely being watched with trepidation by up to 6,000 workers of both companies in Ireland.
4. Australia metadata retention law comes into effect, data held for 2 years
Australia’s controversial metadata retention law has now come into effect, meaning that the location of its citizens, the quantifying of data sent and received, and internet users’ IP addresses will be logged for at least two years.
5. Ada Lovelace Day: Time to change the ratio once and for all
Silicon Republic CEO, and Inspirefest founder, Ann O’Dea, talked to BBC’s Business Daily about diversity in tech and why changing the ratio is critical for effective product development.
6. NASA fires up lasers for 200Mbps broadband in space
NASA is planning to bring broadband to space, using laser beams to get rates of up to 200Mbps via an array of tiny CubeSat spacecraft. This is 100 times faster than what is currently possible.
7. Autonomous cars and IoT get combined €239m from Horizon 2020 funding
Announcing a total of €16bn in funding for the Horizon 2020 programme, the European Union (EU) has set aside a total of €239m for autonomous car technology and the internet of things (IoT).
8. Facebook testing new mobile shopping channel
Facebook is working on a new, single hosting venue for e-commerce, allowing users to shop while they keep an eye on status updates and videos of dogs falling off couches. The option is already being tested on a small scale in the US.
9. Maths Week Challenge 2 – King Rumbo
It’s Maths Week! We’ve partnered up with University College Cork – currently celebrating the bicentenary of the birth of noted mathematician George Boole – to bring you fun and interesting maths challenges every day this week. Today’s requires a little bit of logical thinking.
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Main image via Emma Roche-Cagney/Flickr
