UPDATE: Nov. 1, 2017, 1:36 p.m. AEDT Slack is up and running again, so go back to work.

Slack went down, and workers were left scrambling.

The popular workplace collaboration client suffered “connectivity issues” late Tuesday afternoon (PDT), affecting access to the service worldwide.

Slack responded to tweets about the outage on Twitter, and on its status page — which had also been working intermittently — it said they were “actively investigating” the problem.

More about Tech, Slack, Tech, and Big Tech Companies

Source: Mashable | Slack went down, and naturally workers ran to Twitter to vent about it

When a person becomes suicidal, they don’t necessarily rush to tell friends, family, or even their doctor. They might feel ashamed of their thoughts and emotions, and wish instead for them to simply disappear. 

The stigma surrounding suicide is partly why it’s hard to predict and prevent. But doctors also don’t have great tools to diagnose whether someone is suicidal; patients can conceal self-harm and minimize their experiences when completing questionnaires designed to detect suicidal thinking.

This week, however, a group of researchers published a new study that demonstrates how a novel brain imaging technique can identify people who have suicidal thoughts, simply by presenting them with certain key words, asking them to reflect on their meaning, and using machine learning to analyze that brain activity.  Read more…

More about Social Good, Mental Health, Research, Mental Illness, and Suicide
Source: Mashable | How your brain responds to certain words might predict your suicide risk

Hillary Clinton needs a last-minute Halloween costume, and she’s joked that she’ll be “the president.”

At a book tour event in Chicago Monday night, moderator Cheryl Strayed asked Clinton about her Halloween plans. Clinton mulled it over before giving this answer: “I’m thinking I will maybe come as the president.”

Here’s the moment:

This could be interpreted as dressing up as President Trump, or as her supporters wishfully thought, she might’ve meant what could have been: Madam President. 

It’s funny timing either way with Fox News host Sean Hannity accidentally calling her President Clinton Monday night.  Read more…

More about Halloween, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Costumes, and Culture

Source: Mashable | Hillary Clinton jokes about going as 'the president' for Halloween

Thanks to AT&T, you may soon be able to build your own AI-powered app. 

The Acumos “AI Marketplace,” launched with open-source nonprofit the Linux Foundation, is currently open for “initial access” to companies who pay a registration fee. The platform will be released to the public, for free, in early 2018. 

Acumos will provide a platform through which developers can select AI capabilities (such as location tracking and facial recognition) and string them together to create apps. The interface will be easy to use, according to Mazin Gilbert, AT&T Labs’ vice president of advanced technology. Read more…

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Source: Mashable | AT&T will open AI marketplace to the public next year