Technology

Disclaimer: Most of the vendors mentioned are clients of the author.

While the World Health Organization (WHO) seems to be doing everything it can to keep from naming the coronavirus a pandemic, we are likely already past that point. The combination of a long gestation period, where people are contagious but not showing symptoms, and a fatality rate that is too low to burn the virus out but too high to treat like a cold, will change behavior. As I write this,Facebook has canceled F8; this follows the cancellation of Mobile World Congress and increasing speculation that the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo will be cancelled, too. With no immunization process yet available, we&re months away from when this illness will peak, suggesting that companies need to rethink travel, telecommuting, and even how we hold meetings on-site.

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While Teams may be the focal point of Microsoftcurrent collaboration strategy these days, Yammer — the enterprise social network it acquired in 2012 for $1.2 billion — hasn&t been exactly left for dead.

In fact, Microsoft unveiled a complete redesign of the enterprise social network at last yearIgnite conference, offering up a new user interface based on MicrosoftFluent Design system, smart news feed recommendations, and tighter integration with Outlook, SharePoint and, of course, Teams.

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The cancellation of Mobile World Congress, the Geneva Motor Show and big-name withdrawals from other key industry events in response to the coronavirus outbreak means every enterprise should put remote working and collaboration systems in place.

Now,

This is not a drill

I&m no expert, but the disease, appears to be characterized by high infection rates and a mortality rate 10 times higher than the flu. International response is not yet unified, some seem in denial, and the facts are becoming confused amidst the clamor.

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Google has posted warnings and alerts targeting Microsoft Edge on several of its services' websites, including the Chrome Web Store add-on market, Google Drive, Gmail and the company's default search page, google.com.

It's not uncommon for Google to flag rival browsers with messages that recommend a user download Chrome to access the search company's services. In the past, while it was building its now-dominant position in the browser space, Google targeted Mozilla's Firefox and Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) with such pop-ups. At times, rival browser makers have also countered Google with similar you-should-really-switch-from-Chrome tactics.

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This pilot fish runs a small computer store where all repairs come with a guarantee: &If you experience any problems within two weeks of completion, bring it in and we will take a second look with no additional labor charges,& says fish.

So it is that, shortly after a big snowstorm, fish gets a call from a customer who has recently brought in his PC to get rid of a virus infestation.

Customer explains that, in the time since fish worked on his computer, heno longer able to get his CD-ROM drive to read disks.

That doesn&t seem likely to be connected to the customeroriginal problem, but the guarantee is the guarantee.

So fish says, sure, bring your computer back in and we&ll take another look at it.

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Well, after what I&m sure was a hectic few days for the folks planning the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, the team announced today that they have officially decided to cancel the event happening this March, saying in a blog post that they hoped they would be able to reschedule an event for &later in the summer.&

In recent days, nearly all of the eventtop corporate sponsors announced that they would not be sending employees to the event due to concerns surrounding coronavirus. Microsoft, Unity, Epic, Amazon, Facebook and Sony had all bowed out of the event. GDC statement did not reference the virus.

The company behind GDC detailed that they will be refunding conference and expo attendees in full, though a blog post details that the group hopes to host a GDC event later in the summer, noting, &We will be working with our partners to finalize the details and will share more information about our plans in the coming weeks.&

GDC is just the latest tech conference to be shuttered in the wake of worldwide concern surrounding the outbreak of coronavirus. Yesterday, Facebook announced it would be canceling the in-person component of its F8 conference and we have already seen the cancellation of GSMA‘s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.