Checkout.com acquires payment optimization startup ProcessOut

Checkout.com, the quiet London-based payment platform, has acquired its first startup, ProcessOut. Checkout.com surprised everyone last year when it announced a gigantic $230 million Series A round. It turns out the payment processing boom is not over yet. Checkout.com focuses on enterprise clients with customers all around the world. It provides a full-stack payment service, from accepting transactions, processing them and detecting fraud.

The Ray Project Harnesses Vehicle Telematics Data For A Smart Highway

The opportunities of big data in the transportation industry are huge. A huge number of government agencies are using big data to streamline their transportation services. The United States Department of Transportation has already started using big data to create its Safety Data Initiative. There are plenty of other ways that global governments are using big data to improve transportation services. One of the biggest benefits is by using telematics data to give birth to a new generation of smart highways.

Could Big Data DevOps Tools Spur Need For A UBI?

Andrew Yang recently announced that he was suspending his presidential campaign. Yang was best known as a pioneer for a universal basic income (UBI). Yang and many other UBI proponents argued that a UBI will become essential as automation drives unemployment. They may have a valid point as big data and DevOps technology spur a new industrial revolution. Will UBI become necessary as big data and new DevOps tools play a more important part in our economy?

Get in the lake, Sparky: Databricks touts new ingestion file sources

Data warehousers likely hoping it's not, er, Apache on their efforts Databricks, the company behind the popular open-source big data tool Apache Spark, has released an ingest technology aimed at getting data into data lakes more quickly and easily.…

Grab raises up to $856M to boost payments business as rumors swirl of a merger with rival Gojek

Southeast Asian on-demand transport rivals Grab and Gojek deny that they are involved in talks to merge, but today Grab announced a piece of news that — at the very least — will divert attention from that story, or more likely stoke the fires of speculation that it is indeed gearing up for a deal: Grab said that it has raised $856 million more in funding, in two tranches from strategic Japanese investors, specifically to help grow the other arm of its business, in payments and financial services.

Data Technology Is Crucial To Your Infrastructural Modernization Plan

Big data has played a very important role in many aspects of small business. The market for big data is expected to reach $67 billion by next year. Companies of all sizes need to understand the impact big data has had on their business models. They also need to consider new opportunities for the future. One of the biggest ways that big data can change your business is by helping you modernize your digital infrastructure.

Databricks makes bringing data into its ‘lakehouse’ easier

Databricks today announced that launch of its new Data Ingestion Network of partners and the launch of its Databricks Ingest service. The idea here is to make it easier for businesses to combine the best of data warehouses and data lakes into a single platform — a concept Databricks likes to call ‘lakehouse.’ At the core of the company’s lakehouse is Delta Lake, Databricks’ Linux Foundation-managed open-source project that brings a new storage layer to data lakes that helps users manage the lifecycle of their data and ensures data quality through schema enforcement, log records and more.

Databricks announces data integration partner program, touting “data lakehouse” model

Databricks announces its Data Ingestion Network partner program, adding third party data connectors and pipelines to its platform. Along the way, the company is touting its "data lakehouse" concept to promote its platform as a one-stop shop for data lake, data warehouse and machine learning workloads.

The Future of Fintech: AI & Blockchain

Sweeping global regulations, the growing penetration of digital devices, and a slew of investor interest are catapulting the fintech industry to new highs. Of the many emerging technologies poised to transform financial services, two of the most promising and mature are artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain. 74% of banking executives believe AI will transform their industry completely, and 46% of global financial services employees expect blockchain to improve transparency and data management.See the rest of the story at Business InsiderSee Also:Fiserv, PayCore, Samsung, and Visa have partnered on a mobile point-of-sale solutionThe FCA's new Sector Views report sees technology as a key driver of change in the finance industryN26's withdrawal from the UK is boosting competitors' deposits and customer bases

Logarithms Unmuddled

I often write about topics that I myself have struggled to understand. If I’ve struggled, I assume that many others have struggled as well. Over the years, I’ve found several mathematical concepts confusing, not because I’m mathematically disinclined or disinterested, but because my formal training in mathematics was rather limited and, in some cases, poorly taught. My formal training consisted solely of basic arithmetic in elementary school, basic algebra in middle school, basic geometry in high school, and an introductory statistics course in undergraduate school.