As our readers, our sources, our families and our friends celebrate the long holiday weekend, Techwire will do the same, with publication to resume Thursday, Dec. 27.
In the meantime, here is some recommended reading designed to keep your interest in all things tech stoked over the hiatus.
Enjoy, and from the staff at Techwire, happy holidays!
— California voters approved a proposition in November that would put the state on year-round Daylight Saving Time if legislators ultimately approve it. Having it stay lighter a little later would be nice — but a report by Kaiser Health News says potential problems with the twice-yearly resetting of the clock causes problems with the software that tracks health records. Every fall, when clocks are set back one hour, patients' data from that hour can be forever lost in time.
— Some companies that do business in California are flummoxed over how to comply with the January 2020 deadline on the state law governing personal privacy and data breaches. "The California Consumer Privacy Act ... will change the way that digital advertisers and tech companies use consumer data," says Morning Consult.
—Sac State is one of two U.S. institutions of higher learning that will try out autonomous shuttles beginning in early 2019. Sac State and the East Valley Institute of Technology in Arizona have been selected as the winners of the Olli Fleet Challenge, organized by San Francisco-based LM Industries. Each campus will get two vehicles for three-month pilot trials and research.
— More than 140 needy individuals and households were given state surplus computers at an event put on by the California Broadband Council (CBC) and members of its state Surplus Equipment Task Force, along with volunteers and a community partner, Tech Exchange. "Volunteers handed out a computer about every 1.25 minutes for 3 hours straight," says a California Department of Technology blog post.
