Real Estate, The Economy, and News

Friday, April 28, 2017

Uber Update Lets Users See How They Have Been Rated by Drivers

Especially for people living in densely populated cities like Los Angeles or New York, it can be difficult to justify owning a vehicle. Traffic is usually difficult to deal with, parking can be nearly impossible to find, and unless you're driving a significant distance each day, the combination of gasoline, insurance, and maintenance can make it all too costly. Fortunately, ride-sharing technology gives people a way to get around town without having to own a car of their own.

While there are many ride-sharing smartphone applications, the two most popular and well-known are Uber and Lyft. Each has similar business plans: they take a percentage of every dollar earned by one of their drivers. Both driver and rider have the opportunity to rate each other, and the ratings help other drivers and riders to choose whether they want to use the service. Until recently, riders could see all of the ratings (on a 5-star scale) that other riders had left for their driver, and drivers could see ratings left for riders. According to Tracey Lien's L.A. times article, a recent update to the Uber app will allow riders to view their own ratings.

Uber executives hope that this update will help both drivers and riders to improve the ride-sharing experience. The riders can rate the drivers on safety, friendliness, and cleanliness of the vehicle, while drivers can rate riders on whether they leave a mess in the car or if they slam the doors. Because riders will now be able to see what drivers think of them, it is hoped that they will be more cognizant of their behavior and will, therefore, become better passengers.

Everyone wants to have a high rating on apps like Uber because the app's algorithm matches up riders and drivers based on similar rankings. So, if a rider has close to 5 stars, they will likely get paired up with a driver with a 5-star rating. If they have a lower score, they will, in turn, be paired up with a less-sought-after driver. While this update should be beneficial to everyone, another update aims to help drivers avoid being negatively affected by the behavior of other passengers in an UberPool, in which a rider chooses to share the ride with another user of the app. Lately, Uber has had some bad press, but the changes they are making could help to improve their image, retain their drivers, and win back potential riders.

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Friday, April 21, 2017

LA County to Offer Lower Utilities Rates Through Community Choice Aggregation Programs

In this day and age, as technology continues to advance and resources are stretched thin, energy sources are often on the mind of the common consumer and government entities. Electricity rates have been going up, and even as we search for alternative, green energy options, it can be difficult to make those options affordable. Fortunately, earlier this week, the L.A. County Board of Supervisors approved a public energy program that gives Southern California Edison customers an alternative, government-backed energy source to purchase from. According to Ivan Penn and Nina Agrawal's article in the L.A. Times, the public energy program is expected to lower individual costs by around 5% and is open to residences and businesses alike.

Not only will the energy program be providing power to customers at a lower cost, it will also be focusing on green energy sources. The county will be able to purchase energy from the market and invest in solar energy projects. Because the community choice aggregation (CCA) programs are government entities, they aren't allowed to make a profit on customer rates, which means they will charge the bare minimum to break even. This is very different from companies like Southern California Edison and Pacific Gas & Electric Co., who can charge however much they want.

Hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses in the L.A. County will be able to enroll in the new CCA program, and many people in other counties could be allowed to as well, depending on local regulations. This new energy plan is expected to revamp the entire electricity industry. Private companies will be forced to find ways to lower prices and bring in green energy sources in order to compete with the government entity. Competition tends to drive down prices and drive up demand, so everyone should be happy in the long run. Some private electricity companies worry that the long-term implications of this project remain to be seen and that we should take things slow before rushing into anything.

All in all, CCA programs seem almost too good to be true. A government program that lowers rates and improves the usage of green energy sources seems like a pipe dream. Yet, with proper planning and careful budgeting, it could work out. Technology is redefining various industries, and to survive, the entire country has to change with it. With the new program, new customers can decide exactly what kind of energy they want: wind, solar, or other resources. By giving people options and lowering costs, customers become loyal and are more willing to face the changes that come with dramatic improvements. As long as the CAAs make sure their budgeting is solid, things should work out, at least for the near future.

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Friday, April 14, 2017

Telemarketers Aim to Scam via Social Engineering

Most people have experienced robocalls and telemarketers looking to sell them something. While such calls are annoying, up until recently, they were just annoying. Very few people actually bought the products being sold, but they sold enough to make robocalls economically feasible. Most recently, however, the robocallers have taken a new strategy: known as the "can you hear me" scam. David Lazarus, in his latest L.A. Times article, discusses the popular new telemarketer scam and what you can do to protect yourself from it.

Just as technology is constantly improving to make overall quality of life go up, that same technology can be used to make life more difficult for some. Technology similar to that used by Apple's Siri and Google's Alexa is now being used by computer programmers to make telemarketing calls by a computer seem conversational enough that the recipient doesn't hang up immediately. Because the technology is not perfect yet, the target will quickly catch on and realize that they're speaking to a computer, but in the first few seconds, they may say something that can be used against them.

The "can you hear me" scam is a feat of human engineering, where telemarketing companies demonstrate a thorough understanding of the dynamics of true human conversations. By using that knowledge, the computer is able to get a response they want, in order to scam the responder later. In this scam, the computer asks "can you hear me" with the same inflections as a human, which can usually cause the recipient of the call to respond "yes." Giving an affirmative response is the worst thing you can do in that situation, according to police officials.

When the recipient of the call says "yes," the computer already has what it needs to move forward with the scam. The affirmative response can easily be edited later to make it seem like the target was giving the company approval for a purchase of some kind. There have been several situations over the past months where people have responded to the question "can you hear me" and later found that their credit card had been charged for products they never ordered. A safe rule of thumb when dealing with telemarketers, especially those employing these tactics, seems to be to hang up immediately. If you're not sure if someone is a telemarketer or not, avoid affirmative responses and ask a lot of questions to determine if the answers seem like they are coming from a computer. Machine learning and artificial intelligence are just starting to boom, so be on the lookout for similar scams in the near future.

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Friday, March 31, 2017

Waze's Latest Feature Enables Users to Order Food in the App

Technological innovations in this day and age are often about making day to day tasks easier or more convenient. They help people to save time and money on mundane tasks like ordering food or obtaining transportation. This week, according to an L.A. Times article by the Associated Press, the navigation app Waze has started to team up with fast-food restaurants like Dunkin' Donuts in order to combine the services offered by the two companies and make ordering coffee and other foods on the way to work a seamless process.

Waze is a popular navigation app for smartphones and tablets, which relies mainly on information input by users. It provides turn-by-turn directions and can even tell drivers in real time which route will have the least traffic. While Waze has teamed up with fast-food restaurants like Taco Bell and Dunkin' Donuts in the past, it was mainly an advertising partnership, where the restaurants paid Waze a fee each month to help remind drivers of the different food options on their route. Now, their business strategy has changed, and become more direct.

Instead of just advertising with Waze, and hoping that the ads will make a few drivers visit their restaurant, Waze has now integrated a method for drivers to order from Dunkin' Donuts and pick it up on their route, all without opening up another app. If the trial run with Dunkin' Donuts goes well, Waze could relatively easily update the system to work for any number of merchants and restaurants. One day, people could be able to order food, reserve parking spots, and even get prescriptions filled, all on the way, without the inherent distractions involved with working from several apps at once.

Users of Waze's new system will have to have Dunkin' Donuts' app on their phone, but as long as they are logged in, Waze will be connected and will be able to access their account at the push of a button. Additionally, users of Waze's system have to be registered with Dunkin' Donuts' customer loyalty program, at least until the chain has determined whether the concept works well enough to offer to all of its customers. Waze has been growing in leaps and bounds lately. Recently, they integrated a feature similar to Uber or Lyft where drivers are paid to pick up and drive with other Waze users looking to Carpool. All of these updates seem to be going well for Waze, but it will take a bit of time to see just how well.

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Friday, March 17, 2017

Deter Hackers by Improving Online Security on Social Media Accounts

As time goes on and technology continuously improves, the ability to hack into the new technology improves with it. So, because hackers are getting smarter and finding ways to attack our internet-enabled devices, we too have to develop and work harder to prevent such attacks. Over the past few years, popular social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter have been targets of hacking and phishing schemes. According to Jessica Roy's article in the L.A. Times, one feature on your Twitter account could be making you more vulnerable to hackers.

Lately, there have been several situations in which Twitter accounts have had their security compromised. From celebrities like Justin Bieber to multi-million-dollar businesses like McDonald's, hackers are taking over. Sometimes they just want to "troll" and post something that they think is funny or that might get a reaction. Other times, the messages are designed to trick other people into clicking a link that will allow the hacker to break into other accounts.

In at least one case, the cyber attacks were due to third-party tools and applications, such as "Twitter Counter." Years ago, when Twitter was still new, third-party applications like Twitter Counter allowed users to keep track of followers, find new followers, and post their Tweets on a schedule. Nowadays, few people use such tools, because Twitter has since updated their system to be able to offer many of the same abilities. However, even though most users stopped using Twitter Counter, many of them forgot to disconnect the tool from their account, leaving them vulnerable to a cyber attack.

Because the third-party tool is more easily hacked than Twitter itself, criminals often look to use a program like Twitter Counter as a springboard to get into an account. Once they have hacked the app that has permission to access your account, they will have the ability to post from your account. In order to prevent similar issues on your account, make sure to check the options on your account (under "settings and privacy") and revoke access to any third-party applications that you don't use. To make your account even more secure, Twitter has some built-in security features.

First, two-step authentication can be enabled on your account. While it seems more annoying to have to put in a password and a special code sent to your cell phone by text message or call, overall it can be worth it to avoid data thieves. Additionally, to make your account even more secure, you can choose a complicated password with a variety of letters, numbers, and symbols. Finally, make sure your password doesn't match that on one of your other accounts. If you use the same password for every platform, then if one account is compromised, they all will be. These quick and easy changes to your behavior online can help to protect you and make it much more difficult for hackers to make you their next target.

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Friday, March 10, 2017

NASA and SpaceX Join Forces for Space Travel and Exploration

Even though NASA and SpaceX are both aiming to reach Mars and do more moon exploration in the coming years, they do not see themselves as competitors in the space travel industry. In fact, it is quite the contrary: NASA relies on SpaceX for cargo and astronaut delivery when its budget has been decreased and SpaceX relies on NASA for its technical experience and expertise. Neither one is likely to succeed in their space-based aspirations without the other. In Samantha Masunaga's L.A. Times article, she discusses some of the ways the relatively new company and the government agency work together to make their goals a reality.

NASA's budget today is approximately half of what it was in the 1960s, at the peak of the Space Race. So, in order to make delivery runs to the International Space Station or perform other space exploration, NASA has been working with SpaceX over the past several years to combine funding and experience. In 2006, SpaceX was chosen to help develop the Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon space capsule. About half the funding came from NASA and the other half from SpaceX, but it was the connection to NASA and the ability to work with experienced aerospace experts that helped SpaceX to grow so quickly.

In getting contracts with NASA to deliver equipment and people to the ISS, SpaceX gained massive credibility that would have taken much longer to develop any other way. NASA was able to get a private company's help in filling in their shrinking budget, especially as the space program was closed down, and SpaceX was able to build on their knowledge and become well-known in the industry as the main company in the private sector with such a close association with NASA. Today, SpaceX and Boeing are the two main contractors for shuttling astronauts to and from the ISS. Even if SpaceX is investing some of its own money in such missions, it makes sense, because the company gains popularity through being in the public eye.

Other private companies are getting in on the space exploration industry, but none on the same level as SpaceX. Blue Origin is doing research and development on lunar landers to be able to send deliveries to the moon. Virgin Orbit, a split-off from Virgin Galactic, is working on designing and building satellites. NASA, since the closing of the space program, has taken on the role of "development catalyst," encouraging and helping other companies to be able to break into the space exploration industry. It's a good strategy. By combining with other, newer companies with more funding, they will likely be able to one day succeed in some goals like the landing of humans on Mars, a mission that as of now seems improbable at best. With enough research and technological innovation, as well as teamwork between disciplines and companies, it could be a possibility in the years to come.

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Friday, March 3, 2017

Snap Inc. IPO Jumps 44% on First Day

Snapchat has, since its release in September of 2011, continuously updated and found new ways to attract its expanding base of users. Most recently, the company was planning on adding functionality to help users find their friends and stay updated during emergency situations. From funny videos to reality-distorting filters, Snapchat has stayed technologically in tune enough to keep boosting demand and stay competitive with other social media networks. This week's L.A. Times article by Tracey Lien, Paresh Dave, and Nina Agrawal detail's Snap Inc.'s initial public offering (IPO) and what it means for the company as a whole.

On Wednesday, Snapchat's stock was priced at $17. Within 24 hours, it leaped to a closing price of $24 on Thursday, where it had peaked at $26 for a short time. That 44% gain is the kind of "pop" that can indicate massive success for a new stock offering. It usually means that the stock is in high demand among investors. However, it could also mean that the company purposely "left money on the table," setting the stock at a price lower than it was worth.

Analysts found that Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and other big investment banks had orders for 10 times the number of shares Snap was willing to sell, so they could easily have charged more than $17 per share in order to make extra money. However, in raising the cost per share, they risk reducing demand. While one or two dollars extra per share would have been unlikely to have any significant impacts on overall demand, if Snap had chosen to open at $22 or $23 per share, the market would probably have shown much less interest, and it's possible that the stock would have busted.

To many investors, it's far more impressive for a company's stock price to rise rapidly than to stay steady at an already-high price. It was a smart plan for Snap Inc. to set their stock price at a lower level, giving it room to grow. There is a possibility that if they had started it high it may have ended even higher, but in all likelihood, people would have shown much less interest in the company and not bought at such high levels. Either way, however, investors are unhappy if prices fluctuate too much from their original levels. Whether they start high and drop or start low and pop, investors become concerned. Therefore, the best way for a company to keep its investors happy is to try to predict a stock price that will stay steady through its IPO.

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