Recent News – Page 48

Posted on May 5, 2022 by sick skills — Leave a comment

With their HoloLens 2 project, Microsoft and Volkswagen collaborate to put augmented reality glasses in motion

Imagine putting on a pair of augmented reality glasses as you head out in the morning and get into your vehicle. As your self-driving car takes you to your destination, you get holographic displays of traffic information, weather conditions, shopping recommendations and architectural highlights along the way. And as the day dawns, you can use holographic controls in front of you to adjust the interior temperature to your liking.

That’s the future of mobility envisioned by researchers at German automobile manufacturer Volkswagen, who see augmented reality as one of the key components of future mobility concepts. To get a little closer to that vision, Volkswagen collaborated with Microsoft to enable the HoloLens 2 mixed reality headset to be used in moving vehicles for the first time.

The new “moving platform” mode for HoloLens 2 overcomes a major limitation of mixed reality headsets and creates potential for the technology to be used in new ways — training drivers to handle challenging road conditions, for example, or creating new user experiences for autonomous vehicles. And while mobility is Volkswagen’s focus, the capability could in future be shared across other industries.

Black and white portrait of Dr. Andro Kleen, head of the data science team at Volkswagen Group Innovation. — Dr. Andro Kleen.

“We think mixed reality information is the most intuitive information we could provide to enhance our customers’ user experience,” says Dr. Andro Kleen, head of the data science team at Volkswagen Group Innovation. “Because what you see there, and what you need to process, is very close to what humans normally see and process. It’s not so abstract.”

An early adopter of augmented reality technology, Volkswagen introduced an augmented reality head-up display in its ID. family of electric cars in 2020 that projects navigation arrows, lane markings and other information onto the environment in front of the cars.

But Volkswagen was thinking about the potential of augmented reality even earlier, Kleen says. In 2015, for instance, Volkswagen embarked on a research project using self-piloted vehicles and augmented reality to teach driving on a racing circuit. Tested at Volkswagen’s track facility in Ehra-Lessien, Germany, the Race Trainer system used a head-up display that superimposed lines of arrows on the track for drivers to follow, and provided steering and braking cues to guide them through a gradated set of lessons.

Volkswagen hoped to use HoloLens for the research project, but soon ran up against a problem. When the device was put into a moving vehicle, its sensors lost tracking and the holograms it normally displays disappeared. Kleen’s team approached Microsoft for help and connected with Marc Pollefeys, Microsoft director of science and an expert in 3D computer vision and machine learning. The Volkswagen team traveled to Microsoft’s headquarters in Redmond, Washington to show Pollefeys and his team its work with HoloLens and its vision for augmented reality technology.

“We had extensive discussions,” says Pollefeys, now the director of Microsoft’s Mixed Reality and AI Lab in Zurich, Switzerland. “They presented their use cases and what they were hoping to enable. They were eager to work with us to find a solution and be able to use HoloLens in those situations.”

The two teams began collaborating around 2018 to develop the moving platform feature for HoloLens 2, which required solving a fundamental problem. HoloLens uses two main types of sensors that measure its motion — visible light cameras and an inertial measurement unit, or IMU, that gauges acceleration and rotation speed. Together, the sensors mimic how humans see and move through the world.

But similar to how being in a car or boat can cause motion sickness when what appears to be a stable environment is actually moving, when the tightly coupled HoloLens sensors start disagreeing in a moving environment — with the inertial measurement unit recognizing motion and the cameras unable to — things fall apart.

Photo taken inside a car showing navigational imagery superimposed on the windshield through the use of HoloLens. — Connecting inside and outside of the vehicle: A navigation element positioned outside the vehicle complements the 3D map integrated into the dashboard.

To address that issue, Pollefeys’ team developed an algorithm that models the discrepancies between the sensors and allows HoloLens to continue tracking. But testing the capability posed another challenge. Since Covid-19 restrictions in Switzerland made it impossible to try out the technology in a vehicle with another person at the time, Joshua Elsdon, a Microsoft senior software engineer who worked on the project, had to find solutions from his Zurich apartment.

Elsdon devised a mock platform using a plastic box, sticking bits of tape inside to add visual texture and give the HoloLens cameras elements to track. He rode trams and buses around Zurich wearing a HoloLens headset, making sure its holograms held up as the vehicles moved. At night, Elsdon rode up and down elevators in his apartment block, testing the technology.

“We had to do a lot of testing in my apartment. These aren’t ideal development conditions,” says Elsdon, who is now based in Redmond. “All of this stuff was done remotely and distributed across different countries, which was interesting.”

After the initial prototyping was done, the team also conducted testing on Puget Sound, near Microsoft’s Redmond campus. They rented recreational boats, took them out on the water and used external measurement equipment to assess the performance of HoloLens’ head-tracking system in a moving platform.

Microsoft later tested the feature with Volkswagen. The Volkswagen researchers established a bidirectional data connection between the vehicle and the HoloLens in order to display and control real-time information from the car. Finally, the team implemented several demo use cases investigating how virtual interfaces could enhance the interior of future vehicles.

“We connected a positioning system that tracks the location of the vehicle. This way we were able to also place 3D elements such as information on point of interests outside of the car. This opens up completely new possibilities to not only display holograms within the driver’s forward-facing field of view, but also wherever the user wearing the glasses is looking,” says Michael Wittkämper, augmented reality expert at Volkswagen.

Microsoft rolled out the moving platform feature a few months ago and it is already attracting interest from maritime companies and organizations, which have been using HoloLens to remotely connect maritime workers with mechanical experts through Microsoft Dynamics 365 Remote Assist. The app allows an expert in another location to look through the other person’s HoloLens 2, share their field of view, diagnose a problem and provide input.

Previously only usable when a ship is in port, the capability is even more needed when vessels are at sea and a piece of equipment breaks down.

“The more remote the equipment or machine is, the harder it is to get the expert on site,” says Pollefeys, who is also a professor of computer science at ETH Zurich, a public research university. “This feature turned out to be critical to unlock HoloLens 2 for the maritime space.”

HoloLens’ moving platform feature is currently supported for use on large ships, and Microsoft plans to further refine it for use in elevators, trains, cars and other moving environments. Kleen envisions multiple ways the technology could be used to connect the inside of vehicles with the outside world, such as helping truck or bus drivers navigate through narrow streets, identifying points of interest along driving routes or providing entertainment for passengers.

A hand adjusts the climate control using VR in a Volkswagen automobile. — The direct communication of the AR headset with the vehicle data makes it possible to adjust the temperature or control the intensity and direction of the airflow by gesture.

Kleen and Pollefeys believe augmented reality will become an increasingly important aspect of mobility in the future as smaller, more compact versions of smart glasses become available. Pollefeys characterizes mixed reality glasses as the third generation of personal computing devices, after personal computers and mobile phones.

“Microsoft is not only interested in commercial devices like HoloLens, but also in the longer term, in devices that would make sense for consumers to use in daily life,” Pollefeys says. “With augmented reality glasses, you could walk around the world and information can appear in context, where it’s relevant. You could communicate with other people and also in 3D, as opposed to on a small screen.”

Kleen imagines augmented reality enabling seamless and connected mobility experiences, with people donning smart glasses as they leave home and receiving information through them, from navigational assistance to entertainment, as they travel through their day.

“We think of this as moving toward a mobility system where different products and mobility solutions will be connected,” Kleen says. “The basic assumption is that this technology will become lighter and smaller, and we think that as that happens, more people will get their hands on it and integrate it into their daily lives — and thus into their way of moving from A to B.”

Top photo: Volkswagen demonstrated the future of fully autonomous driving in its Gran Turismo concept car, the ID.VIZZION. (Images courtesy of Volkswagen)

Posted on May 5, 2022 by sick skills — Leave a comment

Vasu Jakkal: Celebrate World Password Day by ditching passwords altogether

Did you know that May 5, 2022, is World Password Day?¹ Created by cybersecurity professionals in 2013 and designated as the first Thursday every May, World Password Day is meant to foster good password habits that help keep our online lives secure. It might seem strange to have a day set aside to honor something almost no one wants to deal with—like having a holiday for filing your income taxes (actually, that might be a good idea). But in today’s world of online work, school, shopping, healthcare, and almost everything else, keeping our accounts secure is more important than ever. Passwords are not only hard to remember and keep track of, but they’re also one of the most common entry points for attackers. In fact, there are 921 password attacks every second—nearly doubling in frequency over the past 12 months.²

But what if you didn’t have to deal with passwords at all? Last fall, we announced that anyone can completely remove the password from their Microsoft account. If you’re like me and happy to ditch passwords completely, read on to learn how Microsoft is making it possible to start enjoying a passwordless life today. Still, we know not everyone is ready to say goodbye to passwords, and it’s not possible for all your online accounts. We’ll also go over some easy ways to improve your password hygiene, as well as share some exciting news from our collaboration with the FIDO Alliance about a new way to sign in without a password.

Free yourself with passwordless sign-in

Yes, you can now enjoy secure access to your Microsoft account without a password. By using the Microsoft Authenticator app, Windows Hello, a security key, or a verification code sent to your phone or email, you can go passwordless with any of your Microsoft apps and services. Just follow these five steps:

Download and install Microsoft Authenticator (linked to your personal Microsoft account).
Sign in to your Microsoft account.
Choose Security. Under Advanced security options, you’ll see Passwordless account in the section titled Additional security.
Select Turn on.
Approve the notification from Authenticator.

User interface of Microsoft Authenticator app providing instructions on how to turn on passwordless account option.

Notification from Microsoft Authenticator app confirming user's password has been removed.

Once you approve the notification, you’ll no longer need a password to access your Microsoft accounts. If you decide you prefer using a password, you can always go back and turn off the passwordless feature. Here at Microsoft, nearly 100 percent of our employees use passwordless options to log into their corporate accounts.

Strengthen security with multifactor authentication

One simple step we can all take to protect our accounts today is adding multifactor authentication, which blocks 99.9 percent of account compromise attacks. The Microsoft Authenticator app is free and provides multiple options for authentication, including time-based one-time passcodes (TOTP), push notifications, and passwordless sign-in—all of which work for any site that supports multifactor authentication. Authenticator is available for Android and iOS and gives you the option to turn two-step verification on or off. For your Microsoft Account, multifactor authentication is usually only needed the first time you sign in or after changing your password. Once your device is recognized, you’ll just need your primary sign-in.

Microsoft Authenticator screen showing different accounts, including: Microsoft, Contoso Corporation, and Facebook.

Make sure your password isn’t the weak link

Rather than keeping attackers out, weak passwords often provide a way in. Using and reusing simple passwords across different accounts might make our online life easier, but it also leaves the door open. Attackers regularly scroll social media accounts looking for birthdates, vacation spots, pet names and other personal information they know people use to create easy-to-remember passwords. A recent study found that 68 percent of people use the same password for different accounts.³ For example, once a password and email combination has been compromised, it’s often sold on the dark web for use in additional attacks. As my friend Bret Arsenault, our Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) here at Microsoft, likes to say, “Hackers don’t break in, they log in.”

Some basics to remember—make sure your password is:

At least 12 characters long.
A combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols.
Not a word that can be found in a dictionary, or the name of a person, product, or organization.
Completely different from your previous passwords.
Changed immediately if you suspect it may have been compromised.

Tip: Consider using a password manager. Microsoft Edge and Microsoft Authenticator can create (and remember) strong passwords using Password Generator, and then automatically fill them in when accessing your accounts. Also, keep these other tips in mind:

Only share personal information in real-time—in person or by phone. (Be careful on social media.)
Be skeptical of messages with links, especially those asking for personal information.
Be on guard against messages with attached files, even from people or organizations you trust.
Enable the lock feature on all your mobile devices (fingerprint, PIN, or facial recognition).
Ensure all the apps on your device are legitimate (only from your device’s official app store).
Keep your browser updated, browse in incognito mode, and enable Pop-Up Blocker.
Use Windows 11 and turn on Tamper Protection to protect your security settings.

Tip: When answering security questions, provide an unrelated answer. For example, Q: “Where were you born?” A: “Green.” This helps throw off attackers who might use information skimmed from your social media accounts to hack your passwords. (Just be sure the unrelated answers are something you’ll remember.)

Passwordless authentication is becoming commonplace

As part of a historic collaboration, the FIDO Alliance, Microsoft, Apple, and Google have announced plans to expand support for a common passwordless sign-in standard. Commonly referred to as passkeys, these multi-device FIDO credentials offer users a platform-native way to safely and quickly sign in to any of their devices without a password. Virtually unable to be phished and available across all your devices, a passkey lets you sign in simply by authenticating with your face, fingerprint, or device PIN.

In addition to a consistent user experience and enhanced security, these new credentials offer two other compelling benefits:

Users can automatically access their passkeys on many of their devices without having to re-enroll for each account. Simply authenticate with your platform on your new device and your passkeys will be there ready to use—protecting you against device loss and simplifying device upgrade scenarios.
With passkeys on your mobile device, you’re able to sign in to an app or service on nearly any device, regardless of the platform or browser the device is running. For example, users can sign in on a Google Chrome browser that’s running on Microsoft Windows, using a passkey on an Apple device.

These new capabilities are expected to become available across Microsoft, Apple, and Google platforms starting in the next year. This type of Web Authentication (WebAuthn) credential represents a new era of authentication, and we’re thrilled to join the FIDO Alliance and others in the industry in supporting a common standard for a safe, consistent authentication experience. Learn more about this open-standards collaboration and exciting passwordless capabilities coming for Microsoft Azure Active Directory in a blog post from Alex Simons, Vice President, Identity Program Management.

Helping you stay secure year-round

Read more about Microsoft’s journey to provide passwordless authentication in a blog post by Joy Chik, Corporate Vice President of Identity. You can also read the complete guide to setting up your passwordless account with Microsoft, including FAQs and download links. And be sure to visit Security Insider for interviews with cybersecurity thought leaders, news on the latest cyberthreats, and lots more.

To learn more about Microsoft Security solutions, visit our website. Bookmark the Security blog to keep up with our expert coverage on security matters. Also, follow us at @MSFTSecurity for the latest news and updates on cybersecurity.

¹World Password Day, National Day Calendar.

²According to Microsoft Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) authentication log data. 2022.

³America’s Password Habits 2021, Security.org. October 1, 2021.

Posted on May 5, 2022 by sick skills — Leave a comment

How a senior product manager is leading the passwordless movement at Microsoft

May 5, 2022, is World Password Day, a day we all use to create awareness around password security. At Microsoft, we choose to celebrate replacing passwords with better and more secure ways to sign in. I can’t think of a better person at Microsoft to represent this journey than Libby Brown, a senior product manager leading our efforts to keep Microsoft Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) customers more secure with passwordless solutions.

Here’s what I love about Libby’s story: her career has followed a winding path that ended up being the best possible path to the role she has today. Early on, she switched from engineering to public policy and then worked in publishing, product marketing, training, release management, and now product management. She’s spent time at a small publishing firm, at a startup, and at Microsoft. She pushed her way past every career hiccup, and as she moved forward, she gained experience that would later be relevant to her work in ways she had never anticipated.

Today, Libby is in a technical role, calling on everything she’s learned throughout her education and career to build usable experiences that make technology easier for businesses of all sizes. Her focus on usability is crucial; we’ve learned the hard way that unless security experiences are easy for IT administrators to deploy and manage, and easy for users to adopt, people will be reluctant to use them. Our goal is to make passwordless authentication even easier to use than passwords, which are hard to remember and far less secure. With her varied background working on an array of products for an array of different audiences, Libby is the perfect person to lead this charge.

Libby’s interview with Eric Sachs has been edited for clarity and length. We’ve included two video snippets of the interview recording so you can learn more about her unique career journey and perspectives.

Eric: I have three young daughters myself, and none of them has gotten interested in computers yet. How did you first get interested in them growing up?

Libby: I was pretty lucky. My older brother was interested in computers, so from the very earliest days, we had a Timex Sinclair computer—with a little chiclet keyboard and programs that saved to a cassette tape—and also an early Apple. I had the opportunity to attend Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Northern Virginia which had just graduated its first class. Computers were just something in the background, from an early age, that I used. I recognize now, though, that I was pretty lucky to have that.

Eric: What did you decide to study in college after you had that opportunity in high school?

Libby: In high school, you take those career “What do you want to do?” questionnaires. My answers always led to engineering, so I attended Duke University to study mechanical engineering. It was an interesting time, but I realized I just did not care if you took a piece of metal and bent it where it would break. It wasn’t the kind of problem-solving that I liked. So, I looked around, took a couple of public policy courses—which turned out to be a different type of systemic problem solving—and ended up majoring in that.

Eric: You eventually got back to computers, so what was the next time you encountered technology?

Libby: After Duke, I returned to Washington, D.C., to get involved in public policy. My first job was for a small publishing company called Congressional Quarterly. They produced daily, weekly, monthly, and annual publications on what Congress was doing. My first job involved researching legislation and entering it into a database. With the year 2000, we needed to upgrade those databases, including how researchers entered the data and how customers pulled the data and were presented with it. I started doing things like designing what that screen would look like, what the website would look like, and designing the queries to pull the data for legislative reports. Little did I know at the time, that’s what I would be doing 20 some years later, just with different challenges, but still focusing on that foundational user experience, running those systems, and designing great opportunities and spaces for users.

Once we made it past the year 2000, we launched the Congressional Quarterly Website. It won a bunch of awards that year for being one of the newest, best magazine tools online. But also keep in mind, this was in the heyday of Web 2.0. Red Herring magazine was 300 pages thick, with information on all these great Web 2.0 companies and the future of e-commerce. Congressional Quarterly was a pretty small business. I realized I needed more scope and scale to succeed in this new world, so I decided to get my MBA.

I chose Vanderbilt University because they had leading researchers in Web 2.0 e-commerce. I studied both information technology and strategy. This led me to think about how businesses take advantage of technology and use it to gain competitive advantage, which became the underlying thread to the rest of my tech career.

Video description: Libby describes her first role at Microsoft.

Eric: So, after business school, you came into Microsoft initially as a Product Manager for one of the company’s publishing arms, left for a startup, and then returned. What was different, and what worked well for you, when you came back?

Libby: I came back for a fun startup-like team within Microsoft called Office Live Small Business. We were working to give small businesses a free custom domain name with Hotmail mailboxes on the backend and a Microsoft SharePoint site they could easily customize to market to their customers. While our product was successful, other technologies were coming online, including Microsoft Exchange and SharePoint moving to the cloud, so we needed to reconcile that. Since we had experience with small businesses and users, our team pivoted to building the user and admin portals for what became Microsoft Office 365. Being part of that transition was a fun time.

Eric: Well, you had quite a journey to get there, but now you’ve been a product manager for a while at Microsoft. How did you end up in the identity team then, dealing with passwords?

Libby: Sometimes I’m not quite sure how I got here myself, but through a series of reorganizations, I found myself doing a weird set of roles around financial compliance for our commerce platform. I learned all about Sarbanes-Oxley compliance, payment card industry (PCI), and other interesting spaces, but it was not an area that I enjoyed. So, I reached out to my wide corporate network. As a product manager at Microsoft, you want to keep those connections active, and I was doing my, “Hey, what’s happening in your space of the company?” interviews with a bunch of friends and former coworkers. One of them happened to work in identity as the program manager lead for the Microsoft Authenticator app, and we realized that I had a lot of applicable skills. I joined that team in 2016.

Eric: I have to admit, I’m a little jealous because your current project’s very focused on passwordless authentication. What about your unique background do you think helps you with this particular challenge?

Libby: We wanted to make the experience of two-step verification easier for Microsoft consumers. As you know, not many people were comfortable with two-step verification, especially in 2016. They didn’t quite understand a password plus something else, whether that something else was an SMS code or a push notification to your phone. Then we said, well, if we can do password plus “push,” why can’t we just do the push and tie it to the device? We’d create a super easy experience of entering your username and responding to a notification on your phone. That got a lot of attention and traction.

And we were also working to build the same type of experience for work and school accounts in Azure AD. Given my background, I asked questions from an organizational standpoint about keeping our customers more secure. How can they make sure that their business is doing what it needs to do—without having to worry about those attacks? Creating a great user experience so employees can easily make that strong authentication gesture to be safe really helps the overall security posture of the company itself.

Video description: Libby explains how usability enhances security.

Eric: It’s pretty exciting. In the passwordless area, the FIDO Alliance recently published a white paper about passkeys. Part of it is about using a mobile phone to help sign in to other devices like a Microsoft Windows desktop. Can you explain a bit more about why that is so important? Windows devices and mobile phones have built-in biometrics—why can’t that just solve all problems and make all passwords go away?

Libby: Passwords have been in our systems now since the 1960s. It’s going to take us a little while to kill them off. But multidevice credentials, which some refer to as passkeys, really are that next thing that will enable us to do that. Most of us have a mobile device in our hands for the better part of the day, and we’re working to take advantage of the native biometrics on that device, whether it’s touch ID or face ID, or the Windows Hello gesture that you might use on your PC. We’re trying to use the native gesture on that device that everyone is familiar with, backed by this modern use of public-key cryptography to keep you secure.

Then I can use my phone as a passkey to sign in on my phone or to another device such as my Windows PC, or the Mac at my mom’s house, and it’s just seamless and ubiquitous. And when you think about the companies that have been involved—whether that’s Microsoft, Apple, Google—we’ve been in this from the very beginning and now we’re looking at more than six billion devices being able to use these standards-based multidevice credentials. When you look at those numbers and that scope and scale, it’s just pretty mind-boggling how we can transform in the next few years.

Eric: Cool! All of us who use passwords, which is just about everybody, want to thank you for taking on the password challenge and it certainly seems like your very unique career path makes you uniquely qualified for this challenge. I can’t wait to see where you lead us next on the passwordless journey.

Libby: Thanks, Eric.

Learn more

Help protect your organization with Microsoft’s complete identity and access management solution.

Learn more about Azure AD.

Posted on May 4, 2022 by sick skills — Leave a comment

It’s May the 4th: Celebrate Star Wars Day with LEGO Star Wars Xbox Sweepstakes

Xbox and the LEGO Group are teaming up to celebrate May the 4th, also known as Star Wars Day. As part of the festivities, the LEGO Star Wars Xbox Sweepstakes is releasing 12 consoles to celebrate and showcase 12 iconic characters from the nine Star Wars Skywalker Saga films. Inspired by the LEGO-themed action-adventure game, LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, the Xbox Series S custom console and controller designs include BB-8, Boba Fett, Chewbacca, Darth Maul, Darth Vader, Finn, Kylo Ren, Luke Skywalker, R2-D2, Rey, Stormtrooper, and Yoda. Each console features a custom color inspired by each of the 12 playable characters featured in the game.

To enter, sweepstakes participants must login to their public Twitter account and follow the official @Xbox account. Once followed, re-tweet the promotional post and include the hashtags #LEGOStarWarsXboxSweepstakes and #Maythe4th. Winners will be notified via Twitter DM.

The sweepstakes entry period will start Wednesday, May 4, 2022, at 7 a.m. PDT through Wednesday, May 31, 2022 at 8 p.m. PDT.

To enter, sweepstakes participants must be a legal resident of any Xbox live supported region and be eighteen (18) years of age or older. Visit the official Sweepstakes rules and regulations for additional information. May the 4th be with you!

LEGO® Star Wars™: The Skywalker Saga

Warner Bros. Games

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The galaxy is yours in LEGO® Star Wars™: The Skywalker Saga. Experience memorable moments and nonstop action from all nine Skywalker saga films reimagined with signature LEGO humor. The digital edition includes an exclusive classic Obi-Wan Kenobi playable character. ● Explore the Trilogies in Any Order – Players will relive the epic story of all nine films in the Skywalker Saga, and it all starts with picking the trilogy of their choice to begin the journey. ● Play as Iconic Heroes and Villains –More than 300 playable characters from throughout the galaxy. ● Discover Legendary Locales – Players can visit well known locales from their favorite Skywalker saga films .They can unlock and have the freedom to seamlessly travel to 23 planets as they play through the saga or explore and discover exciting quests. ● Command Powerful Vehicles – More than 100 vehicles from across the galaxy to command. Join dogfights and defeat capital ships like the Super Star Destroyer that can be boarded and explored. ● Immersive Player Experiences – String attacks together to form combo chains and fend off oncoming attacks. New blaster controls and mechanics allow players to aim with precision, or utilize the skills of a Jedi by wielding a lightsaber and using the power of The Force. ● Upgradable Character Abilities – Exploration rewards players as they uncover Kyber Bricks which unlock new features and upgraded abilities across a range of character classes, including Jedi, Hero, Dark Side, Villain, Scavenger, Scoundrel, Bounty Hunter, Astromech Droid, and Protocol Droid.

Posted on May 4, 2022 by sick skills — Leave a comment

Two sisters create a startup that puts sustainability into global supply chains

“Every company will need to demonstrate their sustainability impact in the next few years,” adds Vowels. “Not only will they be looking at the way they’re working, but they’ll also be looking at the actions their suppliers are taking and whether those align with their own. The opportunity is big, our platform is ready, and we’re excited to scale.”

Working with a sibling isn’t for everyone, but Vowels and Atkins have made it work for them. They realized early on that the “unfiltered” candidness between siblings allowed them to bypass a lot of the “niceties” that other co-founders might have to grapple with.

As sisters, they already had a handle on each other’s personalities and temperaments, as well as their triggers and limits. As they got to know each other professionally, they developed a newfound respect for what the other brings to the table.

Based in Sydney, Atkins oversees product development as well as marketing and business development in Australia. Vowels, based in Singapore, takes care of operations, finance, data and business development in Asia.

“When it comes to strengths, we’re polar opposites – that makes us complementary,” Vowels explains. Atkins adds, “we naturally gravitated toward our roles based on our strengths – and it’s working out well.”

To make their idea come to life they searched for dependable tools and systems. From the get-go, Microsoft Azure has been their cloud of choice. Similarly, Microsoft AI and machine learning software have been instrumental to structuring data and establishing the data relationships to accommodate increasingly complex requirements as their company grows.

a computer screen grab — Above: A screenshot of a givvable dashboard.

Reports are sent to clients via Microsoft Power BI to provide familiarity and peace of mind. “Using a product like Power BI means that the foundations are set. Our customers are confident about using these products, especially when it comes to security,” says Vowels. “Since our customers are already Power BI users, they can set up quickly and navigate their reports without needing to upskill or figure out a new software. This seamlessness has been instrumental.”

Two years into their givvable journey there is much to be proud of. As Atkins says, “We’ve stayed on course because we’re passionate about the problem we’re trying to solve. It’s why we’ve been able to overcome the challenges that have come our way.”

Vowels, smiling, adds, “And we’ve surrounded ourselves with some incredible people.”

TOP IMAGE: Solar panels on a distribution warehouse roof. Photo: Getty.

Posted on May 3, 2022 by sick skills — Leave a comment

PC Game Pass Challenge tied to inaugural 2022 Miami Grand Prix

It’s lights out and away we go in Miami! PC Game Pass has signed up with BWT Alpine F1 Team for one incredible challenge this weekend, from May 6 through 8 at the 2022 Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix — a challenge only the fastest fans will be able to accomplish.

All week long, BWT Alpine F1 Teams Twitter and Instagram channels will show fans what to expect with the Fast Track to PC Game Pass Challenge ahead of the inaugural 2022 Miami Grand Prix. Numerous QR codes will be placed on the surface of both A522 cars — all waiting to be scanned by your mobile device for your chance at 1-month, 3-months or 6-months of PC Game Pass.

On Friday, May 6, the challenge begins when the A522 hits the track for practice for the very-first time in Miami, with 1-month of PC Game Pass available to win. Alongside this, Xbox and PC Game Pass will be taking over BWT Alpine F1 Team’s Instagram channel, with special guest Sonja (@omgitsfirefoxx) posting live from the team’s garage in Miami!

Be warned: catching one of the codes is no easy feat and will be the test of a true pro! If you want to risk your chances at a bigger prize, wait until Saturday’s Qualifying session and scan the QR codes to unlock 3-months of PC Game Pass. And on Sunday, it’s 6-months of PC Game Pass! All motorsports’ fans, whether tuning-in on TV or in-person, will need lightning-fast reflexes and a locked-in “catch it if you can” mindset while the A522 cars flash by. QR codes will unlock PC Game Pass for new members only and you can only redeem one code — so redeem wisely.

If you are at the track, fans can try to grab a custom PC Game Pass x BWT Alpine F1 Team t-shirt with a retro design inspired by the undeniable energy and liveliness of Miami. Lastly, on Saturday, BWT Alpine F1 Team will introduce a very special surprise on their social channels which PC fans don’t want to miss. Stay up to date on the latest by following @AlpineF1Team, #GamePassHasPCGames or #PowerYourDreams across all social media platforms!

BWT Alpine F1 Team Team Principal Otmar Szafnauer said, “We’re very excited to work on this unique collaboration with our partner PC Game Pass at the first-ever Formula 1 Grand Prix weekend in Miami. The digital world is continually evolving and, as a Formula 1 team, it is vital to remain at the forefront of this forever changing landscape. It’s great that we can work in unison with the Xbox team on something like this and it’s only made possible through our esteemed partnership with Microsoft.”

Microsoft is a long-time valued partner of the BWT Alpine F1 team. We at PC Game Pass are honored to celebrate with both Microsoft and BWT Alpine F1 Team in Miami and are thrilled to bring an exhilarating gaming experience to one of the most electrifying sports in the world today.

For more information on BWT Alpine F1 Team, visit www.alpinecars.com/formula-1/the-team. To learn more about how to experience hundreds of high-quality games on Windows PC, including iconic Bethesda games, and new day one titles and the EA Play on PC catalog, head to www.xbox.com/en-US/xbox-game-pass/pc-game-pass.

Posted on May 2, 2022 by sick skills — Leave a comment

Unique job site can help neurodivergent people find meaningful work — while being themselves

“Large organizations are really good at assimilation to build large workforces that inadvertently shave away the beautiful, unique edges and what the neurodivergent community often refers to as their ‘spiky profiles,’” Shukla says. “But it’s the spiky profile you want to retain and support to allow that innovation to rise to the surface.”

Hiren Shukla smiles — Hiren Shukla (photo courtesy of Shukla)

Companies seeking neurodivergent talent often recruit through informal networks and relationships with local universities, nonprofits and advocacy groups — a time-intensive process for both recruiters and job seekers. The neurodiversity job site fills a need for a large-scale, national marketplace with a broad range of jobs, employers and people.

Recently, the site brimmed with listings from small and large companies for software engineers, graphic designers, financial analysts and more. Job seekers can create a profile, upload a resume and connect with employers directly.

Everly-Hall, who was diagnosed with autism in her 40s, says the platform would be helpful if she had to look for work again.

“I could be myself and say this is who I am,” she says. “It would cause me less stress knowing I can just say, ‘I’m on the spectrum. You understand this. I understand this.’”

But Everly-Hall is not looking for work because she’s happy with her job at Ultranauts, a rapidly growing software and data quality engineering firm built with neurodiversity in mind. More than 75% of its employees are neurodivergent. The majority are autistic, many have ADHD or dyslexia, and some are non-speaking or hard of hearing.

Woman holds a dog — Kelly Everly-Hart and her dog Rockie (photo courtesy of Everly-Hart)

When Everly-Hall interviewed with the company in 2015, she disclosed her autism and found her interviewer to be patient and understanding. Seven years later, she still appreciates the supportive workplace, which includes a mentor who helps her interpret social subtext, and the chance to become a leader, an opportunity she lacked at previous jobs.

“I was really made to feel at ease right away, like, ‘We don’t care you have this disability. What we care about is your experience,’” says Everly-Hall, a senior quality analyst and accessibility consultant who works from home in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Founded in 2013, Ultranauts has designed a “Universal Workplace” that allows employees to fully participate and collaborate with colleagues who are different than them. It reduces hiring barriers by not requiring specific degrees or a certain number of years of experience. It favors skills assessments over chatty interviews to determine job fit.

Employees, who work remotely across 30 states in the U.S., are encouraged to communicate in their preferred mode — writing, speaking, being on camera or off. Leadership communication is explicit and transparent to reduce ambiguity and anxiety.

“The advantage we have is not from individual team members being exceptional, but in bringing together different brain types, information processing models and perspectives, and forging collaborative teams,” says Rajesh Anandan, Ultranauts cofounder and CEO.

Rajesh Anandan smiles — Rajesh Anandan (photo courtesy of Anandan)

Neurodiversity also strengthens the workforce at Microsoft, which has hired about 200 people across engineering and business disciplines through its neurodiversity hiring program.

“By adjusting the front door of our interview process, we are finding incredible talent that we previously may have been missing out on,” says Barnett. He hopes more employers will join the job site to enrich the talent at their companies and the lives of neurodivergent people.

For Jason Ross, the platform is a major step in supporting people who have struggled like him.

Before landing a cybersecurity job recently, Ross, who has autism, spent many demoralizing months searching for work and many years getting fired from job after job while trying to navigate workplace dynamics.

“It’s very hard when you want to do well at this thing and you can’t do well at this thing to the point where can’t support yourself,” says Ross, who lives in Virginia and has a master’s degree in cybersecurity studies.

He never discussed his autism at previous jobs but made a bold move this time and disclosed to his new manager. He’s following a mentor’s advice to be upfront and simply tell people he doesn’t “excel in social nuance.” He’s nervous and hopeful about the opportunity to work.

“I’m not less than. I’m different and that’s OK,” Ross says.

He’s also excited about the job site, which he and other neurodivergent people helped shape with their feedback and lived experiences.

“It’s a phenomenal resource,” he says. “It’s made for us, by us. That level of understanding, baked in from the jump, is a meaningful distinction for this platform versus going on any general job platform and throwing your resume into the world.”

Go to the Neurodiversity @ Work Employer Roundtable and watch a video to learn more about its work and the Neurodiversity Career Connector. Employers can also find resources for starting a hiring initiative through the Autism @ Work Playbook.

Top photo: Avatars of Ultranauts employees (image courtesy of Ultranauts)

Posted on May 2, 2022 by sick skills — Leave a comment

Xbox celebrates Asian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month

Team Xbox is proud to honor the contributions and significance of the Asian and Pacific Islander (API) community. As a second-generation Asian American, I am excited to not only pay tribute to our culture, customs, and traditions, but to celebrate the creators and players who share our passion for increased Asian representation and inclusion in games. Asians and Pacific Islanders are a richly diverse set of communities, representing a myriad of histories and heritage. We are celebrating this month by amplifying the many voices, stories, and expressions of Asian and Pacific Islander life that have influenced culture, society, and gaming today.

At Xbox, we are committed to creating a safe place where everyone on the planet can experience the joy of gaming, while championing the unique and diverse content made by innovative Asian and Pacific Islander creators who illuminate the positive role of gaming in their lives, as well as the power of respectful representation in games. This also includes broadening the perspective that careers and opportunities in gaming are welcome to all people, and that our industry will so richly benefit from seeing more creators in gaming who represent players around the world.

Why does increased API representation matter? Nearly half of the 3B+ gamers on the planet are in Asia (source). When it comes to gaming, the Asian and Pacific Islander community is influential, playing an impactful role as players, creators, and spectators. Asian American households own more video game related products than the entire US population (source). We strive to celebrate a global community and the many dimensions of the people within it. We endeavor to see more Asian and Pacific Islander characters in games telling our authentic stories and representing our vast cultures.

We invite you to join us in this celebration of culture and contributions from the Asian and Pacific Islander community. Here are some of the ways Xbox plans to honor this community in May:

Gaming and Impact with Microsoft Rewards

Microsoft Rewards members in the United States can earn and donate points to organizations supporting the Asian and Pacific Islander community with Xbox. The organizations below will be featured on console throughout May:

Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC: Advancing Justice – AAJC works through policy advocacy, community education, and litigation to advance the civil and human rights of Asian Americans and to build and promote a fair and equitable society for all.
AAPI Equity Alliance: AAPI Equity Alliance (AAPI Equity) is dedicated to improving the lives of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders through civic engagement, capacity building, and policy advocacy.
Stop AAPI Hate: Stop AAPI Hate advances equity, justice, and power by dismantling systemic racism and building a multiracial movement to end anti-Asian American and Pacific Islander hate.

Xbox gamers can earn Microsoft Rewards points in various ways, such as playing or purchasing games after downloading the Microsoft Rewards app on Xbox. Earn points and redeem them for real rewards. Join us today and donate through Xbox.

Xbox Plays Livestreams Celebrates Asian and Pacific Islanders in Game

Dark and light green image with Xbox logos featuring pictures of five streamers – Yoshi Sudarso, Fly with Deekay, Sayrumz, Umi No Kaiju, and Kiyoshiyorha.

In celebration of Asian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, Xbox Plays will be dedicating our livestreaming content in May to this community, featuring Asian and Pacific Islander protagonists in games, developers, content creators/streamers and nonprofits. Follow us on our Xbox Twitch Channel and don’t miss any of the action!

Xbox Ambassadors Showcase Asian and Pacific Islander Gaming Community

In the Xbox Ambassadors community, we are dedicated to sharing and amplifying community voices. So, in celebration of Asian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, we asked those who identify as Asian and Pacific Islander in the Xbox Ambassadors community how games with diverse representation have impacted them and to share their stories about being a member of a gaming community. Here are their stories.

Discover Games Curated by Asian and Pacific Islander Communities at Microsoft

At any time, Microsoft Store on Xbox or Windows visitors and Xbox Game Pass members can access games selected by Asian and Pacific Islander communities at Microsoft, reflecting the vast diversity of East Asian, South Asian, Southeast Asian, and Pacific Islander cultures.

Check out the Xbox games and Windows games collections spanning creators, leads, cultures, Asian American creators and leads, plus games with audio, interface, and subtitles translated in Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Japanese, and Korean.

Life is Strange: True Colors (Rated M and Available with Xbox Game Pass) – Alex Chen, the first Asian American protagonist in this award-winning series, uses her psychic power of empathy to try to solve the mystery behind her brother’s death. The story explores the importance of self-care and includes same gender relationship options.
Sable (Available with Xbox Game Pass) – Guide Sable through her Gliding; a rite of passage that’ll take her on an unforgettable journey. Written by Meg Jayanth, who is Indian, and music composed by Japanese Breakfast, headed by Korean American, Michelle Zauner.
Hoa – Inspired by Vietnamese art and culture, Hoa is a beautiful puzzle-platforming game that features breathtaking hand-painted art, lovely music, and a peaceful, relaxing atmosphere.
Apex Legends – Playable characters include Rampart, who is voiced by British-Indian actress Anjali Bhimani, and Makoa Gibraltar, a symbol of strength for Pacific Islander and LGBTQIA+ communities.
Elden Ring (Rated M) – A fantasy action, role-playing game adventure set within a world created by Hidetaka Miyazaki in collaboration with fantasy novelist George R.R. Martin.

View the collections in Canada, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Visitors to both the Xbox and Microsoft Store on Windows can find Asian and Pacific Islander community picks by searching for “API Heritage” and related terms. Content is subject to availability by country.

New Gamerpic, Profile Theme, and Avatar Items

In partnership with the Asian and Pacific Islander community at Xbox, we’re introducing a new gamerpic, profile themes, and avatar items! The gamerpic and profile theme will be available on console and the Xbox PC app. Get your avatar items here.

343 Industries Celebrates APIHM with New Nameplate and Emblem

The 343 Industries Team is celebrating APIHM with new content in Halo Infinite Lone Wolves: Season Two! During the month of May, any players logging into Halo Infinite will receive an exclusive nameplate and emblem celebrating APIHM.

Learn more about all that Xbox is doing to engage our communities at the Xbox Community Hub.

Posted on May 2, 2022 by sick skills — Leave a comment

For Military Appreciation Month, recognizing and supporting those who serve

The U.S. Congress in 1999 officially designated May as National Military Appreciation Month, and at Microsoft we mark this as a time to recognize and celebrate the employee military community globally. In this moment I remember my own grandfathers. My dad’s father served as an infantryman in World War I. The tri-corner folded flag presented to us at his funeral is encased steps away from my desk at home. My mom’s stepfather served as a paratrooper in World War II. The map he carried with him of the 1943 invasion of Sicily, where he jumped behind enemy lines, hangs just a few feet from my desk as well.

Both my grandfathers were enlisted soldiers who volunteered and served with distinction during times of great conflict. Both shaped my views of military service — that it is driven by courage, honor, and love of country and fellow citizens.

It’s why, when I was asked to serve as one of the executive sponsors for Microsoft’s Military Employee Resource Group (ERG), I happily but humbly accepted. I have had the privilege of interacting with many who have given distinguished military service around the world and who are also committed Microsoft employees. Many in Microsoft’s military community are veterans and others still serve today, in reserve corps for their countries. They commit weekends to training. They accept the responsibility of periodic deployments, some weeks and even months in duration. They, along with active-duty peers, are at the ready to be called to serve by their country. They are also outstanding colleagues who have made a choice to apply their well-earned skills and capabilities at Microsoft. We are better as a result.

I aspire to be an ally to Microsoft’s military community. This means committing to learning so I can gain a greater degree of empathy for the experiences and perspectives of those who serve. It means being an advocate for the community and working actively to value veterans’ experiences. And it means doing my part for the community when called upon — following their example of service, even if in very small ways.

Here I offer a few reflections on my own learning journey and the journey we’ve been on at Microsoft, which I hope might provide encouragement to others who strive to be allies to the military community:

Express sincere appreciation for the service and sacrifice of veterans and those serving today. Of course, our gratitude is not what motivates service — the veterans and service members I know are motivated by duty, honor, love of country and fellow citizens. Those who serve know that their responsibility is 24 hours a day, every day of the year. Readiness and preparedness never get to take time off. We can express our gratitude by being willing to listen and learn more about the experiences of the military community, and by remembering and acknowledging their service not only during times of conflict in the world but at all times.

Celebrate and support military community members in their careers after active service. Microsoft employs thousands of veterans and reserve service members in many countries around the world. We strive to be world class in our policies and benefits that support military community employees. For example, during reserve deployments in the U.S., we provide salary continuity by supplementing the difference between military and Microsoft pay, and we continue benefits coverage such as employee and dependent health care. And our benefits programs have supported over 600 employee deployments in 18 countries outside the U.S. in just the past five years. Beyond our company programs, our managers take special care to appreciate and leverage skills and experiences gained in military service, and support team members called to reserve duty. This commitment at an individual and team level gives me immense pride.

Appreciate that the military community can experience world events in significant and distinct ways. The conclusion of the Afghanistan war, for example, had profound meaning for so many who served during that 20-year conflict, and especially so as 13 U.S. service members gave their lives during the final drawdown and exit. It was a privilege at that time for our Military at Microsoft ERG leadership to share a message of acknowledgment and thanks to our community: “To those who have served or are serving, whether with boots on the ground or from afar, to those who have supported family members in service, you have our deepest gratitude. We were tragically reminded in recent days of the great risk taken by those who serve. Like so many before them, we will not forget those who gave their lives. We honor them as heroes.” Along with critical support at key moments, the ERG — which is global and also encompasses active local chapters such as the Australia New Zealand chapter — is there for the Microsoft military community day in and day out, year-round. The military experience continues to evolve, and Military at Microsoft ERG helps employees connect, navigate, and grow.

Serve those who have served. This year’s theme for Military Appreciation Month at Microsoft is “Appreciation Beyond Words.” I deeply hope that our military community experiences in tangible ways that their service is recognized. A wonderful example, one of immense pride for so many of our employees, is the Microsoft Software and Systems Academy (MSSA). Established nine years ago, MSSA has provided a practical and intensive training curriculum that has helped prepare over 3,000 transitioning military service members for their next career. Over 400 Microsoft employees have committed their personal time to serving as mentors for MSSA participants, yet another example of serving those who have served.

Military Appreciation Month gives us an opportunity to recognize those who make such significant commitment to their countries and fellow citizens. On behalf of employees at Microsoft and everyone who shares deep appreciation for the courage, commitment and sacrifice of those who serve, thank you.

Posted on April 29, 2022 by sick skills — Leave a comment

Limited-edition custom Xbox Series S console and Xbox wireless controllers inspired by ‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’

What kind of sorcery is this!? Xbox has teamed up with Marvel Studios’ “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,” in U.S. theaters May 6, to create a limited-edition custom Xbox Series S console and Xbox Wireless Controllers inspired by key characters from the film.

The customized Xbox Series S console features Gargantos, the giant, green, one-eyed octopus from another dimension who is one of the film’s most dangerous villains. In addition to the console, Xbox is revealing wireless controllers modeled after four of the upcoming film’s main characters: Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and The Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), as well as Wong (Benedict Wong), and America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez). Each controller will feature distinctive and recognizable components and textures from the characters’ costumes.

Fans can enter for a chance to win the exclusive custom Xbox Series S and all four Xbox Wireless Controllers by retweeting the official Xbox sweepstakes tweet. Visit the official sweepstakes terms and conditions for more information.

In addition, fans can enjoy the action with Fortnite Chapter 3: Season 2’s Battle Pass which includes Master of the Mystic Arts, Doctor Strange. With the Chapter 3 Season 2 Battle Pass, you can unlock Doctor Strange and the Conjure Weapon Emote, Spellwork Scimitar, and more!

About Marvel Studios’ “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness“

In Marvel Studios’ “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,” the MCU unlocks the Multiverse and pushes its boundaries further than ever before. Journey into the unknown with Doctor Strange, who, with the help of mystical allies both old and new, traverses the mind-bending and dangerous alternate realities of the Multiverse to confront a mysterious new adversary.

“Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Elizabeth Olsen, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Benedict Wong, Xochitl Gomez, with Michael Stühlbarg, and Rachel McAdams.

The film is directed by Sam Raimi, and Kevin Feige is the producer. Louis D’Esposito, Victoria Alonso, Eric Hauserman Carroll, Scott Derrickson, and Jamie Christopher serve as executive producers. The screenplay was written by Michael Waldron. “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” releases in theaters on May 6, 2022.