Wed. Apr 1st, 2020

Grace

Vericool raises $19.1 million for its plant-based packaging replacement for plastic coolers – TechCrunch

By Grace 21 hours ago

Vericool, a Livermore, Calif.-based startup that’s replacing plastic coolers and packaging with plant-based products, has raised $19.1 million in a new round of financing.

The company’s stated goal is to replace traditional packaging materials like polystyrene with plant-based insulating packaging materials.

Its technology uses 100% recycled paper fibers and other plant-based materials, according to the company, and are curbside recyclable and compostable.

Investors in the round include Radicle Impact Partners, The Ecosystem Integrity Fund, ID8 Investments and AiiM Partners, according to a statement.

“We’re pleased to support Vericool because of the company’s track record of innovation, high-performance products, well-established patent portfolio and focus on environmental resilience. We are inspired by the company’s social justice commitment to address recidivism and provide workplace opportunity to formerly incarcerated individuals,” said Dan Skaff, managing partner of Radicle Impact Partners and Vericool’s new lead director. 

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New COVID-19 dashboard maps give daily updates on coronavirus impact for every US county and state

By Grace 21 hours ago

Drill down into the latest data for individual counties in every US state to find out the newest information on how the coronavirus is affecting your city.

Counties and municipalities across the country are grappling with the COVID-19 pandemic, so Esri has released a new dashboard to give insight on how coronavirus is impacting their community

The Impact Planning for COVID-19 dashboard is available to the public free of charge and it is powered by Esri’s ArcGIS Business Analyst.  It merges hospital bed availability data from Definitive Healthcare with daily COVID-19 cases with Esri demographics for an overall snapshot of preparedness, capacity, and vulnerability at the county level for every state in the US.

SEE: Coronavirus: Critical IT policies and tools every business needs (TechRepublic Premium) 

Insurance coverage, at-risk population and hospital beds in data

To use the map, just select any state and county from the dropdown menu and

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The two most hated programming languages among developers

By Grace 21 hours ago

Coding is intrinsic to the job of a developer, but find out what they really think about some of the most common languages.

Must-read Developer content

As more organizations turn to data analytics for optimizing operations, developer demand only heightens. Working with programming languages is embedded in the job, with Python, Java, and JavaScript being some of the most widely used. 

SEE: Programming languages: Which was most popular each year? (free PDF) (TechRepublic)

While those languages might be popular among organizations, that does not mean they are the most loved by programmers themselves. Java and JavaScript were actually two of the least favored languages, according to professional developers. 

“This may be an unpopular opinion due to JavaScript’s immense popularity, but it’s often quite a mess to work with in reality,” said Jack Mannino, CEO of nVisium, an application security provider.  

“By design, JavaScript encourages anti-patterns such as the use of

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Los Angeles-based challenger bank HMBradley officially opens its virtual doors – TechCrunch

By Grace 2 days ago

The Los Angeles-based digital challenger bank, HMBradley, opened its virtual doors to the public today, allowing the thousands of waitlisted would-be users to set up direct deposits and collect their sign-up bonuses.

The company is offering banking customers an up to 3% return on their savings based on the percentage they save of their quarterly deposits.

HMBradley also set up a new feature which allows users to save towards specific goals.

Backed by PayPal founder Max Levchin’s HVF Labs, along with Walkabout Ventures, Mucker Capital, Index Ventures, and Accomplice, to the tune of $3.5 million, HMBradley was designed to benefit savers, the company said.

Account holders with balances up to $100,000 can receive up to 3% annual percentage yields on their accounts. These account holders qualify by receiving one direct deposit and saving at least 5% of the total amount deposited in an account monthly.

HMBradley accounts are held

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6 Zoom tips to improve your video conferences while telecommuting

By Grace 2 days ago

These Zoom tutorials can help employees working from home due to the coronavirus pandemic have more productive video conferences.

With millions of people telecommuting from home due to the COVID-19 coronavirus, meetings that were previously held in person have now been moved online–and lots of workers are now using Zoom, in particular. Whether you are a beginner or a more advanced user of Zoom, these how-to tutorials will help you optimize your virtual meetings.

Working from home doesn’t mean you can’t meet with coworkers. Zoom is one of the ways you can stay in touch while apart. If you’re unsure of how to launch a Zoom meeting, follow these steps, and you’ll be chatting face-to-face in no time.


Free from TechRepublic

Not everyone has a home office, so folks attending a video meeting might be in a bedroom, kitchen, or other space that all attendees can see when the

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Facebook, Slack and Twitter among tech companies joining WHO to launch COVID-19 hackathon

By Grace 2 days ago

The goal is to develop software to help solve some of the problems caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Proposals are being considered this week as part of a global hackathon whose mission is to develop software to manage the COVID-19 outbreak. The online #BuildforCOVID19 Global Online Hackathon is being spearheaded by the World Health Organization and leading tech companies including Microsoft, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, TikTok, WeChat, and Slack.

The hackathon “is an opportunity for developers to build software solutions that drive social impact, with the aim of tackling some of the challenges related to the current coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic,” the group wrote.

Each participating company has committed resources for developers who apply. The site has received close to 20,000 submissions. Winning proposals will be announced on Friday, April 10.

SEE: Coronavirus: Critical IT policies and tools every business needs (TechRepublic Premium)

The group developed a list of the key challenges

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