mentor

It's no secret that there's a lack of women in the tech industry. But the former deputy public advocate of New York City, Reshma Saujani, wants to do something about it.

Saujani launched a new initiative called Girls Who Code this month backed by tech heavyweights Twitter, eBay, Google, and General Electric. The program aims to encourage high school girls to study computer science and engineering.

"Together with leading educators, engineers, and entrepreneurs, Girls Who Code has developed a new model for computer science education, pairing intensive instruction in robotics, web design, and mobile development with high-touch … Read more

A new network employing mobile devices and social networks wants to make it easier for small charitable organizations to raise the money they need to help their causes.

MobileCause, a Web service for nonprofit fundraising in the social-media age, has launched a new mobile mentor program, One by One, in an effort "to increase mobile philanthropy and provide essential mobile tools free-of-charge to smaller nonprofits."

According to MobileCause's stats, of the more than 1.5 million established nonprofits in the United States, more than 50 percent raise less than $500,000 a year from donations because they don't have the budget to cash in on a diversity of fundraising tools in the Information Age.

So, MobileCause will provide an online, mobile giving setup allowing large and medium nonprofits to support a charity of their choosing. The hope is that mentoring and support will provide hundreds of early-stage and smaller charities access to various mobile solutions they couldn't use previously. … Read more

Nearly six years ago, Google went public and unleashed over $170 billion in employee wealth--money that is now being actively re-invested in building the next wave of Googles.

Is Google the exception, or is such reinvestment the rule for Silicon Valley entrepreneurs?

A quick scan of the industry suggests that Google is, indeed, exceptional, but perhaps not to the extent that people think.

Googlers aren't alone in spending their wealth on technology investments, of course. Well-known entrepreneurs like Marc Andreessen and other angel investors have gone on to fund new start-ups like Twitter and LinkedIn.

Such angel investors get … Read more

IBM is tapping into its computing know-how to get to the next-generation 22-nanometer chip technology.

Generally, the smaller the geometries, the faster and more power efficient the chip becomes. Both Intel and Advanced Micro Devices are moving their processor lines from 65-nanometer to 45-nanometer technology. (AMD, which does joint chip R&D with IBM, is slated to begin doing this in the fourth quarter.)

After 45nm, comes 32nm, which doesn't present any great manufacturing process hurdles. But 22nm is a different story. And IBM is trying to lead the way--ahead of Intel.

At its most basic, photolithography--the conventional … Read more

Cadence Design Systems has withdrawn its $1.5 billion bid to acquire rival Mentor Graphics.

Cadence had made an offer in June to buy the chip-design software company, but said in a statement Friday that Mentor's board and management "were unwilling to engage in substantive discussions."

"That, along with our revised outlook and the present economic climate, led us to conclude that financing terms for the transaction are no longer attractive for our shareholders," the San Jose, Calif., company said.

Mentor Graphics rejected the offer last month, saying it was too low, according to Reuters. … Read more

Another day, another e-book reader. There must be something in the air, because in the last week alone we've seen new releases of Endless Ideas' "Bebook," the Irex "Book Edition," and now Astak's "Mentor."

The latest runs on Windows CE 5.0 and has a 6-inch screen that's similar to the displays on the Amazon Kindle and Sony Reader, as well as the Bebook. Unlike the competing readers seen in the last few days, however, Astak's offering includes Wi-Fi connectivity, uses e-ink technology, and has a lower price than all … Read more