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A high-profile director leading Googles augmented reality efforts has left the companyand took no time to blast his former employer.

Mark Lucovsky, the former head of operating systems on the search engines augmented reality team, hit out at Googles unstable commitment and vision as he announced his departure on Twitter.

The recent changes in AR leadership and Googles unstable commitment and vision have weighed heavily on my decision, he wrote on Monday.

Lucovsky was hired by Google in late 2021 to build an operating system and software for the companys smart glasses, codenamed Project Iris, and other augmented reality devices.

The Verge first reported on the existence of Project Iris in January 2022, describing the device like a pair of ski goggles. However, it later emerged that the ski goggles were actually a collaboration with Samsung, while Iris was a series of devices more closely resembling regular glasses.

But a recent report from Insider has revealed that Google has shelved its Project Iris plans to focus on building augmented reality software that it hopes to license to other manufacturers building headsets instead.

Now Google reportedly aspires to be the Android for AR, focusing on software rather than hardware, but the constant change in strategy in recent years has frustrated many workersincluding Lucovsky, whose last day at Google was June 30.

Moving forward, I am eager to explore opportunities that allow me to further advance Augmented Reality technology and its intersection with generative AI, he explained. I approach the next chapter with enthusiasm and anticipation for the exciting possibilities that lie ahead.

Lucovsky is a well-respected name in the tech industry with prior experience at Microsoft and Facebook where he helped build the Windows NT operating system andserved as the general manager of Oculus VR.

But the competition to find another role in the industry will be fierce, with Apples Vision Pro and Metas Quest 3 both already well on their way to the market.

Lucovskys departure is one of many in recent months at Googles augmented reality team, following a round of layoffs and the resignation of Googles former head of virtual reality, Clay Bavor.

Bavor, a Google veteran who worked at the company for almost 2 decades, left the company to launch an artificial intelligence venture with former Salesforce co-CEO Bret Taylor.

We share an obsession with recent advances in A.I., and were excited to build a new company to apply A.I. to solve some of the most important problems in business, Bavor wrote in a Linkedin post earlier this year.

But its yet to be known whether Lucovsky will join forces with Bavor once again at his start-up.

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Google loses its top engineering exec for augmented reality as he blasts the companys unstable commitment - Fortune

Media Contact:Jan Thornburg, Communications General Manager | jan.thornburg@sarasotafl.gov

Sarasota, FL (July 10, 2023): The community is invited to learn about the Engineering Design Criteria Manual (EDCM) 2023 update and participate in break-out sessions by topic during a public meeting July 19.

The EDCM is a guide that provides established design standards for roads, trails, sidewalks and other infrastructure within the right-of-way, and is used by City of Sarasota staff as well as private sector engineers and developers.

The public meeting will be held 56:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 19 at the SRQ Media Studio in the City Hall Annex, 1565 First Street.

During the meeting, City transportation and engineering staff will provide a presentation on the final draft of the EDCM 2023 update, which includes revisions to chapters on streetscape, street design, stormwater and erosion, subdivision regulation and solid waste. Each topic will be discussed during break-out table sessions.

The meeting will be an opportunity for citizens to provide feedback on the final draft prior to City Commission public hearings in Fall 2023.

Public outreach for the EDCM 2023 update started in November 2022. Four community outreach events have been held and two online surveys conducted. A third survey is open until July 28 and can be completed online.

Additional information about the EDCM 2023 update is available at http://www.SarasotaFL.gov/government/edcm

Questions should be directed to City Engineer Nik Patel or Chief Transportation Planner Alvimarie Corales.

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About the City of Sarasota: Distinguished by U.S. News and World Report as the No. 5 Best Place to Live in the U.S. and the top place in Florida, the City of Sarasota is a diverse and inclusive community located on Floridas Suncoast with 56,000 year-round residents, several internationally recognized cultural arts venues, stunning sunsets along Lido Beach and Major League spring training baseball with the Baltimore Orioles. Learn more about us at http://www.SarasotaFL.Gov

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Public invited to learn about the revised Engineering Design Criteria ... - City of Sarasota

Aurora Telecoms Barry OBrien discusses his role as a network engineer and what its like to work in the telecoms industry.

Barry OBrien believes there are three aspects of his personality that make him suited to engineering: a logical way of thinking, an interest in solving problems and a general curiosity in the subject.

OBrien is a colocation and network engineer at Aurora Telecom, a backhaul dark fibre service provider. According to OBrien, he has always naturally gravitated toward engineering topics, from enjoying subjects like math and science to frequently watching TV programmes about how things are put together.

For as long as I can remember, I have been curious about how things were constructed and operated.

Due to my natural inclination towards engineering, it might have appeared planned, but the path to my current job was not a straightforward one. I worked in construction engineering on a wide variety of projects up until the economic crash. With the onset of the crash and the extensive number of job losses in the sector, I was amongst those impacted. But as the saying goes, when one door closes, another opens.

I received a recommendation from a friend about a number of jobs vacancies in telecoms and shortly after, I commenced a role in telecoms civil design and planning. I then held a number of roles within telecoms working on fibre and wireless projects.

In 2015, I joined Aurora Telecom as a network planner. This coincided with the consistent expansion of the network, creating the need for an increased number of colocation facilities. Naturally, the requirements to maintain these new sites increased and with my past experience and education, I was a good fit to manage the operation, maintenance and upgrades of these facilities.

There are so many avenues you can go down in engineering You just need to find what suits you

The economic crash was probably the greatest challenge I and many of my contemporaries in the industry have faced. Due to the downturn in construction and widespread layoffs, I was faced with a number of difficult choices including whether to retrain, remain in Ireland or follow friends and colleagues and try to obtain work abroad.

I chose to stay in Ireland and around the same time, one of my friends pointed me in the direction of a role in telecoms and I have been working in the industry ever since. Maintaining a strong professional network and building good relationships has always helped me in my career and in this instance, it helped guide me in the right direction again.

I cant say there was just one person as I believe that has really been a number of key people who have given me the necessary nudge at different stages of my journey. This includes teachers during my school days, where I was guided towards science, construction and engineering.

During challenging periods, I have always relied on friends and family for advice on career choices, such as moving into the telecoms industry. While in my current and previous roles, I have always benefitted from the support and advice of numerous colleagues who Ive worked with over the years.

The people and the variety/diversity of work. I enjoy working closely with the Aurora Telecom team, our contractors and our customers on projects operating cutting-edge technologies, critical infrastructure and the roll-out of large-scale network expansion projects.

While working in Aurora Telecom, I have always been encouraged and supported to review and improve our processes and identify solutions for our customers. A recent example of this is a project were delivering in response to the increased number of extreme storms experienced in Ireland over the last number of years. Aurora Telecom was one of the only telecoms companies not to experience a customer-affecting outage during these events, but with the expected increase of extreme weather events, we are looking to increase our network reliability even further. After successfully presenting a business case, I received approval to project manage the roll-out of onsite standby power generation across all of our colocation sites.

In addition to this, I get to work across a wide variety of topics such as fibre and civil planning, colocation facility construction and maintenance, regulatory compliance, tender generation, contractor management and development of IT systems including CRM (customer relationship management) and disaster recovery. This variety keeps the role interesting and ensures I am continuously learning new skills.

It is a constantly evolving field. The industry is always looking to develop new and improved products and services, and as a result there are always new and exciting roles being developed. Due to this change, there are always opportunities to progress into more senior roles or to diversify into other disciplines.

There are so many avenues you can go down in engineering. I would encourage people to talk to as many people as possible in the industry and where possible, try to get work experience to help identify your preferred career path.

Its important that you understand that not all roles may suit you, so you should complete thorough research to ensure that you have a genuine interest in a potential placement. Some people may enjoy working in a cutting-edge R&D lab, whereas others may enjoy the challenge of working on major civil engineering projects in far-flung places. You just need to find what suits you.

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How the variety in telecoms keeps this engineer engaged - SiliconRepublic.com

Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Chad Plantz, the Special Agent in Charge of the San Diego Field Office of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), and Tyler Hatcher, the Special Agent in Charge of the Los Angeles Field Office of the Internal Revenue Service - Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), announced the unsealing of an Indictment charging SHAKEEB AHMED with wire fraud and money laundering in connection with his attack on a decentralized cryptocurrency exchange (the Crypto Exchange). AHMED was arrested this morning in New York, New York, and will be presented this afternoon before U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert W. Lehrburger.

U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said: This is the second case we are announcing this week to shed light on fraud in the cryptocurrency and digital asset ecosystem. As alleged in the indictment, Shakeeb Ahmed, who was a senior security engineer at an international technology company, used his expertise to defraud the exchange and its users and steal approximately $9 million in cryptocurrency. We also allege that he then laundered the stolen funds through a series of complex transfers on the blockchain where he swapped cryptocurrencies, hopped across different crypto blockchains, and used overseas crypto exchanges. But none of those actions covered the defendants tracks or fooled law enforcement, and they certainly didnt stop my Office or our law enforcement partners from following the money.

HSI Special Agent in Charge Chad Plantz said: Financial crime strikes at the core of our national and economic banking security. With an attack of this magnitude, its crucial we ensure continued consumer confidence in our financial system. Ruthless and reckless attempts aimed to sabotage legitimate commerce for greed must be stopped. Its cases like these that demonstrate HSIs commitment and ability to work with a coalition of the willing to dismantle these complicated and technical fraud schemes and identify those responsible regardless of where they operate.

IRS-CI Special Agent in Charge Tyler Hatcher said: As alleged, Mr. Ahmed used his skills as a computer security engineer to steal millions of dollars. He then allegedly tried to hide the stolen funds, but his skills were no match for IRS Criminal Investigation's Cyber Crimes Unit. We, along with our partners at HSI and the Department of Justice, are at the forefront of cyber investigations and will track these fraudsters anywhere they try to hide and hold them accountable.

As alleged in the Indictment:[1]

The Crypto Exchange was incorporated overseas and operates on the Solana blockchain. At all relevant times, the Crypto Exchange allowed users to exchange different kinds of cryptocurrencies and paid fees to users who deposited cryptocurrency to provide liquidity on the Crypto Exchange.

In July 2022, AHMED carried out an attack on the Crypto Exchange by exploiting a vulnerability in one of the Crypto Exchanges smart contracts and inserting fake pricing data to fraudulently cause that smart contract to generate approximately $9 million dollars worth of inflated fees that AHMED did not legitimately earn, which fees AHMED was able to withdraw from the Crypto Exchange in the form of cryptocurrency. This conduct defrauded the Crypto Exchange and its users, whose cryptocurrency AHMED had fraudulently obtained. Additional details regarding the attack, including AHMEDs use of cryptocurrency flash loans to further defraud the Crypto Exchange, are described in the Indictment publicly filed today.

After he stole the fees he never legitimately earned, AHMED had communications with the Crypto Exchange in which he decided to return all of the stolen funds except for $1.5 million if the Crypto Exchange agreed not to refer the attack to law enforcement.

At the time of the attack, AHMED was a senior security engineer for an international technology company whose resume reflected skills in, among other things, reverse engineering smart contracts and blockchain audits, which are some of the specialized skills AHMED used to execute the attack.

AHMED laundered the millions in fees that he stole from the Crypto Exchange to conceal their source and ownership, including through (i) conducting token-swap transactions, (ii) bridging fraud proceeds from the Solana blockchain over to the Ethereum blockchain, (iii) exchanging fraud proceeds into Monero, an anonymized and particularly difficult cryptocurrency to trace, and (iv) using overseas cryptocurrency exchanges.

After the attack, AHMED searched online for information about the attack, his own criminal liability, criminal defense attorneys with expertise in similar cases, law enforcements ability to successfully investigate the attack, and fleeing the United States to avoid criminal charges. For example, approximately two days after the attack, AHMED conducted an internet search for the term defi hack, read several news articles about the hack of the Crypto Exchange, and visited several pages on the Crypto Exchanges website. As another example, AHMED conducted internet searches or visited websites related to the charges in the indictment, including by searching for the term wire fraud and for the term evidence laundering. Finally, AHMED also conducted internet searches or visited websites related to his ability to flee the United States, avoid extradition, and keep his stolen cryptocurrency: he searched for the terms can I cross border with crypto, how to stop federal government from seizing assets, and buying citizenship; and he visited a website titled 16 Countries Where Your Investments Can Buy Citizenship . . .

* * *

AHMED, 34, of New York, New York, is charged with wire fraud and money laundering, each of which carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

The maximum potential sentences are prescribed by Congress and are provided here for informational purposes only, as any sentencing of the defendant will be determined by a judge.

Mr. Williams praised the outstanding work of HSI and IRS-CI. Mr. Williams also thanked the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Southern District of California for their assistance in the investigation.

The case is being prosecuted by the Offices Money Laundering and Transnational Criminal Enterprises Unit and Complex Frauds and Cybercrime Unit. Assistant U.S. Attorneys David R. Felton and Kevin Mead are in charge of the prosecution.

The charges contained in the Indictment are merely accusations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

[1] As the introductory phrase signifies, the entirety of the text of the Indictment and the description of the Indictment set forth herein constitute only allegations, and every fact described therein should be treated as an allegation.

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Former Security Engineer For International Technology Company ... - Department of Justice

Air Force Materiel Command is establishing a new organization within the Air Force Sustainment Center to facilitate software engineering collaboration throughout the enterprise.

The AFSC Software Engineering directorate will consolidate the three existing software engineering groups located at each of the Air Logistics Complexes in an effort to eliminate redundancy, improve the effectiveness of processes and prioritize the delivery of software.

This decision will align and integrate our software ecosystem capabilities to Air Force priorities and rapidly address the growth in volume and complexity of software-enabled DAF weapon systems, said Lt. Gen. Shaun Morris, commander of the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center.

Gen. Duke Richardson, commander of AFMC, said the new organization aligns with the commands strategic plan and will enable seamless integration of other software factories in the future.

Software engineering group employees will begin consolidating workload and resourcing decisions through the new organization.

This realignment will enable us to spread the workload and allow for an increased flow of idea-sharing. Working together to solve complex issues will greatly accelerate our capacity to support the warfighter, said Michael Jennings, senior technical leader at the AFSC Software Engineering directorate.

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Air Force Materiel Command Establishes New Software Engineering ... - Executive Gov