Big Data analytics provider Tectonic has announced that it is now providing services for Google’s Cloud Dataproc. Dataproc launched in beta in September then in general availability in February, and allows users take advantage of open source data tools for batch processing, querying, streaming, and machine learning, complete with automation tools that allow clusters to be ...

End-to-end virtual reality content creation platform and marketplace Voxelus is nearly here with the company announcing today that it would be going live in early April, and that it had signed new partnerships with online marketplace Flat Pyramid and online trading platform Uphold. The partnership with Flat Pyramid, an online marketplace for finding, purchasing and ...

Identity management firm ForgeRock, Inc. has released the results of a new privacy survey that has disturbingly found that most IT professionals don’t believe companies are doing enough to protect customer privacy. The survey polled 300 IT professionals, working across eleven verticals, including healthcare, retail, telecommunications and finance in 38 countries, and found that 93 ...

Business operations platform startup Usermind, Inc. has raised $14.5 million Series B in a round led by Menlo Ventures that included previous investors Andreessen Horowitz and CRV. As part of the deal, Menlo Ventures Managing Director Matt Murphy is joining the Usermind Board of Directors, which already includes Andreessen Horowitz Co-founder and Partner Ben Horowitz, ...

When many think of drones they may think of Middle Eastern air strikes, smaller camera drones, or even attempts to utilize drones to make deliveries, but what if drones could be used to protect endangered wildlife? That’s exactly what The Lindbergh Foundation’s Air Shepherd program has been designed to do, in an initiative that will ...

Is there a demand for an Uber-like service for escorts? It turns out a venture capitalist in China believe the answer to that question is yes, with local on-demand escort service Come Rent Me (Hangzhou Ouch Technology Ltd) raising 5 million RMB ($770,000) in a round from an undisclosed investor earlier this week. Founded in ...

A Chrome extension that promises to remove ads from a Bitcoin-related site is offering an additional feature users’ are unlikely to want, and that’s the theft of their Bitcoin’s when they attempt to make transfers on a number of leading Bitcoin exchanges. The BitcoinWisdom Ads Remover is an extension that removes ads from BitcoinWisdom.com, a ...

Just when it was thought that the saga of failed Bitcoin exchange Cryptsy (Project Investors, Inc.) couldn’t get any more absurd, it has, with the founder of the company offering a reward to a hacker who is alleged to have stolen funds from the exchange. Founder and Chief Executive Officer Paul “Big Vern” Vernon has ...

Microsoft’s 15-month long love affair with Bitcoin may be coming to an end, with the tech giant quietly removing the option to pay for items using the cryptocurrency in the Windows 10 and Windows Mobile stores at some point in the last week. There was no official announcement from Microsoft, however, a page appeared in ...

The so-called encryption wars have spread to a new front with news over the weekend that the Department of Justice (DOJ) has a new target: the Facebook-owned messaging app WhatsApp. According to an exclusive story from The New York Times, DOJ prosecutors have been “discussing how to proceed in a continuing criminal investigation in which a ...