DIGIT’s Top Trending Stories

Parliament Website Crashes Due to Article 50 Petition Popularity

The UK Parliament’s petition website crashed this morning as hundreds of thousands of Brits raced to back a call for Brexit to be cancelled by revoking Article 50.

The petition had received more than 600,000 signatures before the website was overloaded by the high volume of traffic at about 9am. Petitions require 100,000 signatures in order to be considered for debate in Parliament.

Margaret Anne Georgiadou, who created the petition, said the petition “didn’t do very well for a week”. She told the BBC: “I nearly gave up but then I contacted a lot of people and it took off.”

A House of Commons spokesperson said the site crashed due to “a large and sustained load on the system”. The site briefly was temporarily brought back online, before crashing again, with website visitors greeted by a “down for maintenance” message.

Want to find out more? Read the original article here.

UK IT Salaries Set to Rise Despite Brexit

With Brexit imminent, employee confidence and business willingness to spend have taken a significant blow. According to figures from an annual Salary Survey by global recruitment consultancy Robert Walters, this impact will see professional UK salaries remain fairly static through 2019.

In stark contrast to this bleak forecast, the IT sector can expect to see intense hiring activity and salary increases.

James Murray, director of Financial Services at Robert Walters, said: “We are seeing a decrease in candidate confidence in terms of people actually wanting to move in light of relative uncertainty.

“We have also seen some hiring pauses and we have seen longer timescales in terms of new hires being signed off. Nonetheless there is still a lot of recruitment activity for technology jobs in the banking and financial sector, particularly around information security, machine learning, natural language processing and data engineering.”

According to the analysis, the UK remains a leading country in Europe in terms of candidates with IT skills. Between 2016 and 2018, the number of roles advertised in the tech sector increased by 11%.

With tech hubs in the regions growing at three times the rate of London, and job creation up, this demand is being reflected in increased salaries. The survey revealed that IT talent in hubs outwith London could expect a pay increase of 20% in 2019.

Want to find out more? Read the original article here.

Pig Facial Recognition Tool Could Help Improve Animal Wellbeing

Scientists at Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) Pig Research Centre in Penicuik, Midlothian, are using a new pig facial recognition tool to help assess the emotional wellbeing of the animals.

The tool works by scanning the pig’s face to determine if its facial expression is content or distressed. Highly expressive and intelligent animals, previous SRUC studies have successfully demonstrated that pigs are able to communicate their mood and intentions to each other using different facial expressions.

To develop this technology, researchers on the project have been capturing 3D and 2D facial images of the breeding sow population. The images are then sent to the University of West of England (UWE) for processing, where methods are being developed to automatically identify the pig’s different emotions.

Researchers say that the tool could be developed to monitor individual faces and alert farmers to health and welfare problems as it will be able to tell if they are happy, sad, in pain or content.

Want to find out more? Read the original article here.

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Ransomware Attack Cripples Major Aluminium Plant

One of the world’s largest aluminium producers has been hit by a “severe” ransomware attack.

Norsk Hydro, based in Oslo, Norway, was forced to switch to manual operations at some of its smelting plants this week.

The attack on the company, which employs more than 35,000 people in 40 countries, began on the night of 18th March and the firm has been working to restore systems all this week.

Some of its factories were forced to halt production, and notices were posted at its offices warning employees not to log in to their computers.

Employees have, instead, been using their smartphones and tablets to access emails. Workers at some factories have also been using printed order lists while they are unable to retrieve order data from their computers.

Want to find out more? Read the original article here.

Korean Men Arrested After Targeting 1,600 Victims in Spycam Porn

Four men have been arrested in South Korea after they allegedly secretly filmed 1,600 women and attempted to sell the footage online for a total of £4,705.

Korean police said that in August 2018 the suspects had placed 1mm lens cameras in 30 hotels across 10 South Korean cities. The men face up to 10 years in jail and a fine of up to £20,175.

The covert filming of sex and nudity in South Korea has sparked protests and has been described as an epidemic in the country.

Want to find out more? Read the original article here.

Jim Henson’s Creature Shop Helps Create Robo-Dog to Comfort Dementia Sufferers

Jim Henson’s Creature Shop has helped to create a robotic dog to provide a sense of emotional support and affection to dementia sufferers.

Tombot is a Kickstarter project co-founded by Tom Stevens, who was inspired to create the robo-dog after having to rehome his mum’s dog when her Alzheimer’s became too severe for the pet to safely stay with her.

Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, famous for building Muppets, provided the artistic design services for the Tombot prototypes. Stevens hopes Tombot will can improve the quality of life for seniors with dementia.

Want to find out more? Read the original article here.