#’networks’ (in this case… public DEVICES but… same core concept)

[party-gilmore]

I’m sorry but if you don’t want your kid to be on a fucking [electronic] all day… maybe don’t give your kid their own [electronic]?

[craigbrownphd-blog-blog]

If you did not already know

KBpedia KBpedia is a comprehensive knowledge structure for promoting data interoperability and knowledge-based artificial intelligence, or KBAI. The KBpedia knowledge structure combines seven ‘core’ public knowledge bases – Wikipedia, Wikidata, schema.org, DBpedia, GeoNames, OpenCyc, and UMBEL – into an integrated whole. KBpedia’s upper structure, or knowledge graph, is the KBpedia Knowledge Ontology. We base KKO on the universal categories and knowledge representation theories of the great 19th century American logician, polymath and scientist, Charles Sanders Peirce. KBpedia, written primarily in OWL 2, includes 55,000 reference concepts, about 30 million entities, and 5,000 relations and properties, all organized according to about 70 modular typologies that can be readily substituted or expanded. We test candidates added to KBpedia using a rigorous (but still fallible) suite of logic and consistency tests – and best practices – before acceptance. The result is a flexible and computable knowledge graph that can be sliced-and-diced and configured for all sorts of machine learning tasks, including supervised, unsupervised and deep learning. … Parallel Monte Carlo Graph Search (P-MCGS) Recently, there have been great interests in Monte Carlo Tree Search (MCTS) in AI research. Although the sequential version of MCTS has been studied widely, its parallel counterpart still lacks systematic study. This leads us to the following questions: \emph{how to design efficient parallel MCTS (or more general cases) algorithms with rigorous theoretical guarantee? Is it possible to achieve linear speedup?} In this paper, we consider the search problem on a more general acyclic one-root graph (namely, Monte Carlo Graph Search (MCGS)), which generalizes MCTS. We develop a parallel algorithm (P-MCGS) to assign multiple workers to investigate appropriate leaf nodes simultaneously. Our analysis shows that P-MCGS algorithm achieves linear speedup and that the sample complexity is comparable to its sequential counterpart. … AutoQB In this paper, we propose a hierarchical deep reinforcement learning (DRL)-based AutoML framework, AutoQB, to automatically explore the design space of channel-level network quantization and binarization for hardware-friendly deep learning on mobile devices. Compared to prior DDPG-based quantization techniques, on the various CNN models, AutoQB automatically achieves the same inference accuracy by $\sim79\%$ less computing overhead, or improves the inference accuracy by $\sim2\%$ with the same computing cost. … Adaptive Computation Steps (ACS) In this paper, we present Adaptive Computation Steps (ACS) algorithm, which enables end-to-end speech recognition models to dynamically decide how many frames should be processed to predict a linguistic output. The ACS equipped model follows the classic encoder-decoder framework, while unlike the attention-based models, it produces alignments independently at the encoder side using the correlation between adjacent frames. Thus, predictions can be made as soon as sufficient inter-frame information is received, which makes the model applicable in online cases. We verify the ACS algorithm on an open-source Mandarin speech corpus AIShell-1, and it achieves a parity of 35.2% CER with the attention-based model in the online occasion. To fully demonstrate the advantage of ACS algorithm, offline experiments are conducted, in which our ACS model achieves 21.6% and 20.1% CERs with and without language model, both outperforming the attention-based counterpart. Index Terms: Adaptive Computation Steps, Encoder-Decoder Recurrent Neural Networks, End-to-End Training. … https://analytixon.com/2023/02/23/if-you-did-not-already-know-1973/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=tumblr

[craigbrownphd]

If you did not already know

KBpedia KBpedia is a comprehensive knowledge structure for promoting data interoperability and knowledge-based artificial intelligence, or KBAI. The KBpedia knowledge structure combines seven ‘core’ public knowledge bases – Wikipedia, Wikidata, schema.org, DBpedia, GeoNames, OpenCyc, and UMBEL – into an integrated whole. KBpedia’s upper structure, or knowledge graph, is the KBpedia Knowledge Ontology. We base KKO on the universal categories and knowledge representation theories of the great 19th century American logician, polymath and scientist, Charles Sanders Peirce. KBpedia, written primarily in OWL 2, includes 55,000 reference concepts, about 30 million entities, and 5,000 relations and properties, all organized according to about 70 modular typologies that can be readily substituted or expanded. We test candidates added to KBpedia using a rigorous (but still fallible) suite of logic and consistency tests – and best practices – before acceptance. The result is a flexible and computable knowledge graph that can be sliced-and-diced and configured for all sorts of machine learning tasks, including supervised, unsupervised and deep learning. … Parallel Monte Carlo Graph Search (P-MCGS) Recently, there have been great interests in Monte Carlo Tree Search (MCTS) in AI research. Although the sequential version of MCTS has been studied widely, its parallel counterpart still lacks systematic study. This leads us to the following questions: \emph{how to design efficient parallel MCTS (or more general cases) algorithms with rigorous theoretical guarantee? Is it possible to achieve linear speedup?} In this paper, we consider the search problem on a more general acyclic one-root graph (namely, Monte Carlo Graph Search (MCGS)), which generalizes MCTS. We develop a parallel algorithm (P-MCGS) to assign multiple workers to investigate appropriate leaf nodes simultaneously. Our analysis shows that P-MCGS algorithm achieves linear speedup and that the sample complexity is comparable to its sequential counterpart. … AutoQB In this paper, we propose a hierarchical deep reinforcement learning (DRL)-based AutoML framework, AutoQB, to automatically explore the design space of channel-level network quantization and binarization for hardware-friendly deep learning on mobile devices. Compared to prior DDPG-based quantization techniques, on the various CNN models, AutoQB automatically achieves the same inference accuracy by $\sim79\%$ less computing overhead, or improves the inference accuracy by $\sim2\%$ with the same computing cost. … Adaptive Computation Steps (ACS) In this paper, we present Adaptive Computation Steps (ACS) algorithm, which enables end-to-end speech recognition models to dynamically decide how many frames should be processed to predict a linguistic output. The ACS equipped model follows the classic encoder-decoder framework, while unlike the attention-based models, it produces alignments independently at the encoder side using the correlation between adjacent frames. Thus, predictions can be made as soon as sufficient inter-frame information is received, which makes the model applicable in online cases. We verify the ACS algorithm on an open-source Mandarin speech corpus AIShell-1, and it achieves a parity of 35.2% CER with the attention-based model in the online occasion. To fully demonstrate the advantage of ACS algorithm, offline experiments are conducted, in which our ACS model achieves 21.6% and 20.1% CERs with and without language model, both outperforming the attention-based counterpart. Index Terms: Adaptive Computation Steps, Encoder-Decoder Recurrent Neural Networks, End-to-End Training. … https://analytixon.com/2023/02/23/if-you-did-not-already-know-1973/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=tumblr

[blockchainx2023]

The Importance of Blockchain Technology

There is a strong need for software engineers in the field of blockchain technology as blockchain platforms expand quickly in the technological world. More than 10 years ago we witnessed the birth of Bitcoin with its exceptional functionalities using the blockchain.

After several years of evolution, some blockchain projects have already captivated people and companies around the world. In today's society, one can find many decentralized software platforms for trading and have access to many features through accessible possibilities.

However, many people consider the increased availability of different blockchain ideas to be a positive feature. Conversely, some business owners may be receptive to the prospect of switching to the new trending blockchain projects.

Therefore, as a developer, if you don't understand new blockchain projects, you are likely to be left behind.

Basic services that are crucial to the financial services industry can be improved by blockchain technology. At its core, it is based on a digitalized, decentralized, and distributed ledger technology model. Blockchain technology creates a viable decentralized record of transactions, the distributed ledger, which can replace a single master database.

Blockchain could be used to keep an immutable record of all transactions back to the point of origin, making it an amazing technology for creating business digital solutions. This concept, which is significant in trade finance, is also known as provenance. This enables financial organisations to examine each stage of a transaction and lower the risk of fraud.

Blockchain applications also provide a much better means of creating and proving identity for modern systems. Additionally, blockchain technology greatly simplifies the direct transfer of business assets and increases confidence in their provenance.

This can be achieved by providing special identities for attached assets with an inviolable record of their ownership. As a result, there is a huge market for additional finance services based on the exchange of real goods.

Blockchain and Bitcoin

Some people consider bitcoin and blockchain to be the same Cryptocurrency. Blockchain is the underlying technology of bitcoin. Both are closely related but are not the same. A digital currency known as Bitcoin was first launched in 2008 under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto.

The mechanism utilised to maintain records was based on blockchain technology. Enabling this new digital money since there was no involvement from a bank, the government, or the police in the transactions. However, Bitcoin can be considered as the first use case to take advantage of blockchain technology.

Thus, the confusion between the two usually arises because they were introduced into the real world simultaneously. However, since the blockchain network was introduced, it has been extrapolated as a ledger solution in many other industries related to non-currency digital assets.

These are areas such as healthcare with medical records, trade finance, the owner of a bill or purchase order and insurance, and those who have title to a house or car.

Data Stored in a Blockchain is Public

While some public blockchains are accessible to everyone, others are exclusively privately accessible to selected people. The use case will determine the type of blockchain that is needed.

The main types of blockchain technology are the following Public, Private and Consortium Blockchains.

Public Blockchains

Users can join the blockchain networks by using the public blockchain. This means that users can store, receive and send data after downloading the necessary software application on their mobile device.

Users may now access and write the data that is stored on the blockchain network, though. This is a completely decentralized blockchain, and access to read and write data on the blockchain technology is divided equally among all connected users.

Users come to a consensus before storing any data in the database. Bitcoin is a well-known instance of this kind of blockchain among digital currencies. Digital currency allows users to use a platform to transact directly with each other.

Private Blockchains

An organization has control over who is allowed to write, send, and receive data on a private blockchain. This kind of blockchain is often utilised inside of a company with a small number of users who may access it and conduct transactions in accordance with its rules.

Blockchain Consortium

A permissioned blockchain is another name for a consortium blockchain. It is seen as a hybrid model that combines the high trust single entity model of private blockchains with the low trust model provided by public blockchains. The characteristics of a consortium blockchain set it apart from other kinds of blockchains.

Instead of allowing users to participate in verifying the transaction process or giving a single company access for full control, a consortium blockchain selects only a few parties who are predetermined.

With the use of the consortium's blockchain technology, a select few users are able to take part in the consensus process.

There is only one blockchain

Blockchain is often used to refer to a ledger technology rather than a specific commodity, solution, or service. Blockchain will have the same denominators, such as being distributed and devoid of cryptography and having a consensus mechanism.

Many blockchains present themselves as public, private, or consortium. Additionally, there are several protocols that may be classed as distributed ledger technologies and are referred to as blockchains. Some examples are Ethereum, IBM, Ripple, Corda, and Fabric.

[arenamains]

Ivacy on kodi

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You can check on the left and scroll down for more app that this can unblock. Here’s what this VPN can unblock along with Netflix US.

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If you want to unblock other Netflix regions.Įnjoy streaming all your favorite TV Shows and Movies without any interruptions. Refresh the Netflix page to get US Netflix as in the image mentioned.Īlso, Ivacy can unblock Netflix in France, Japan, the UK, Australia, Germany & Canada on any of its compatible devices.Connect to a US server and open Netflix on your browser or app.

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Download and install IvacyVPN for your device.

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If you are interested in streaming movies try out the Best Movie Streaming sites Unblocks US Netflix Ivacy is the core of its performance so you won’t find any buffering while streaming, this VPN is also capable to unblock Disney+. The great thing to have these servers are clearly labeled and noticeable which resolves the frustration of finding reliable servers like in the case of most VPNs. Both Netflix and BBC iPlayer got accessed through dedicated streaming servers. IVacy will be a great choice for streamers as 1000+ servers you can get access to Netflix, Hulu, BBC iPlayer and other popular streaming sites to get unblocked. Therefore, no traffic logs, data logs, bandwidth logs…etc. If you have time and want to check their logging policy, Here it is. I can say that this VPN does it better than other VPNs that I have reviewed. Ivacy VPN will truly not log any of the user’s data, while other VPNs just advertise they are “ Zero Logging” but to some extent, they do log. There are also other VPN protocol options available like PPTP, SSTP, L2TP, and IkEv2. Using the same technology to power up OpenVPN. When you compare this to a normal web session in which all of your activities are encrypted by SSL creating a special key so that no one else can gain access. When you connect to any public Wi-Fi waiting at a coffee shop, as your browser activity you are data will be logged. This VPN is providing 256-bit encryption which is used by governments and security companies Protocols Attackers are the culprits who always want your personal information to get leaked like private photos and videos.īut with better encryption like 256-bit encryption, you can stay stronger even in today’s market. There are many attacks like brute force or automated systems working to gain the credentials of users to land on the right page. EncryptionĮncryption is the primary concern in a VPN as public Wi-Fis are the most common places for third-party members to gain access to other’s online activities like in Hotel, Airport. They have completed more than a decade in the VPN market under PMG Private Limited, interesting thing is Ivacy is a secretive company.ĭo you know that Ivacy is the first VPN in bringing the revolutionary concept of Split tunneling technology amazed me.

#Ivacy on kodi trial#

There is no trial period and requires Ivacy account but there is a 30-day money back guarantee.Ivacy is not a newcomer in the VPN list, it’s been operated since 2007 with headquarters located in Singapore.

#Ivacy on kodi how to#

How to Disable Windows 10 Activity History Permanently.

How to Disable Advertising ID for Relevant Ads in Windows 10.

How to Enable the Windows Defender Sandbox in Windows 10 & 11.

Why You Shouldn't (Mostly) Use Free VPN Services.

The newly introduced feature connects automatically to the fastest server available within a few seconds.

So you can route your official data through a VPN tunnel and less important stuff without the cover of a VPN. Ivacy also allows Split Tunneling, which permits you to split and prioritize your data traffic. It also allows you to exchange unlimited data over Ivacy’s network without restrictions. The Ivacy servers are specifically optimized to give you the best speed for P2P file-sharing along with complete anonymity, security, and privacy. Ivacy VPN service has intelligent features to help you configure VPN according to your desired purpose with just a few clicks. You can switch between servers as many times as you want. Ivacy operates a strategic network of servers in 100+ locations, allowing for true internet freedom with 1000+ servers worldwide. Ivacy VPN Service provides anonymous internet browsing power from a user-friendly interface with support for over 1000 different servers.

[brijeshstuff]

A future-proof data center for growing data needs

Companies have been able to unload a lot of the complexity required in running a data center by moving to the cloud, which provides access to compute, storage, and network as a commodity. However, enterprises that use several cloud providers while maintaining or implementing on-premises solutions to host legacy applications or for niche use cases such as edge or high-security requirements face new hurdles.

The core concept of how a data center provides services, as well as its very definition, is fast evolving, as are the expectations of future application developers.

So, what happens next? What will the next data center look like? What capabilities and circumstances should it be able to handle? New workload demands, such as the Internet of Things (IoT), smart devices, data security, and laws, are posing new difficulties and opportunities. Future data centers must have the following characteristics.

Flexible

To accommodate a variety of situations, new data centers will need to be extremely adaptable. Public cloud providers will play an important role in the future, but let's start with on-premises systems, which will remain important.

On-premises systems may prove to be more cost-effective than public cloud counterparts in some use scenarios but it is only applicable when the expense is not eclipsed by the complexity and danger involved.

Public Cloud service providers usually have huge storage spaces, and even at reasonable rates as they follow to pay-per-usage model. Also, they are flexible in terms of providing cloud storage compliant with specific industry standards like banking, government, enterprise, etc.

Distributed

The capability to be distributed should be another attribute of sophisticated Data centers. There are three primary motivations for constructing dispersed infrastructure.

The first is to avoid single points of failure to reduce outages and data loss. Power outages, fires, system failures, human error, network disruption, and system outages are just a handful of the numerous potential catastrophes that might occur in a data center. Companies avoid these risks by deploying infrastructure across numerous geographically dispersed data centers.

The second consideration is proximity. 5G-enabled hypoconnectivity is pushing the envelope. Future data centers will serve an increasing number of devices at the edge, as data is being consumed and created there

Street furniture in smart cities, parking sensors, video surveillance, and self-driving cars are all examples of data closets. Proximity has several advantages, including reduced latency and lower data transit costs. Some even say that the cloud computing era is reaching its limits because of proximity.

Finally, businesses are increasingly compelled to maintain data location control to ensure regulatory compliance, data sovereignty, and data protection. Data centers will need to work seamlessly with hosting infrastructures all over the world to meet jurisdictional and customer needs to be matched with the General Data Protection Regulation and other data protection legislation.

This feature will be crucial given the hyper concentration of major cloud providers in a small number of countries today.

Outstanding User Experience

Easy use should not be sacrificed for distribution and flexibility. Cloud-native capabilities, such as the capacity to scale compute and storage resources on-demand, as well as API access for integrations, must be available in data centers. While this is standard practice for containers and virtual machines on servers, the same capabilities should be available in other settings, including IoT and edge servers.

Final World

The data center of the future resembles today's multi-cloud or hybrid cloud in many ways. Despite the fact that two-thirds of CIOs wish to use many suppliers, just 29% do, and 95% of their cloud money is spent with only one cloud service provider. It means that there is a strong need that has yet to be met.

[davids69811]

How Cryptocurrency Functions

In other words, cryptocurrency is electronic cash, which is developed in a manner that it is safe and secure and also anonymous in some instances. It is carefully connected with web that takes advantage of cryptography, which is basically a process where understandable information is converted into a code that can not be cracked so as to tack all the transfers and acquisitions made.

Cryptography has a background dating back to the World War II, when there was a need to interact in the most secure manner. Because that time, an advancement of the same has happened as well as it has actually come to be digitalized today where various components of computer technology and also mathematical theory are being used for purposes of protecting interactions, money as well as info online.  Buy Bitcoin Cheap

The first cryptocurrency

The really initial cryptocurrency was presented in the year 2009 and also is still popular throughout the world. Many more cryptocurrencies have actually because been presented over the past few years and today you can find a lot of available online Buy Bitcoin EU.

How they function

This type of electronic currency takes advantage of modern technology that is decentralized so as to allow the various individuals to make payments that are secure and additionally, to save money without always utilizing a name or even experiencing a financial institution. They are generally worked on a blockchain. A blockchain is a public ledger that is dispersed openly.

The cryptocurrency devices are usually developed making use of a procedure that is referred to as mining. This usually involves the use of a computer system power. Doing it in this manner addresses the math troubles that can be very made complex in the generation of coins. Customers are only allowed to purchase the money from the brokers and then keep them in cryptographic wallets where they can invest them with excellent convenience.

Cryptocurrencies as well as the application of blockchain modern technology are still in the infant phases when thought of in monetary terms. More usages may arise in the future as there is no informing what else will be invented. The future of transacting on stocks, bonds and other types of economic properties could quite possibly be traded utilizing the cryptocurrency as well as blockchain innovation in the future EU.

Why utilize cryptocurrency?

One of the main characteristics of these currencies is the truth that they are safe and secure and that they provide a privacy level that you may not obtain anywhere else. There is no chance in which a deal can be reversed or forged. This is by far the greatest reason that you ought to take into consideration utilizing them Acquire Bitcoin EU.

The charges charged on this kind of money are additionally rather low and also this makes it a very trustworthy alternative when contrasted to the conventional currency. Since they are decentralized in nature, they can be accessed by anyone unlike banks where accounts are opened up just by permission.

Cryptocurrency markets are providing a brand-new money kind as well as often the incentives can be excellent. You might make an extremely small financial investment just to discover that it has mushroomed into something excellent in a really brief time period. Nonetheless, it is still crucial to keep in mind that the marketplace can be unpredictable too, and there are dangers that are related to purchasing EU.

Why Should You Sell Cryptocurrency?

The modern-day concept of cryptocurrency is ending up being incredibly popular amongst investors. A revolutionary principle presented to the world by Satoshi Nakamoto as a side item ended up being a hit. Decoding Cryptocurrency we recognize crypto is something concealed and currency is a medium of exchange. It is a form of money utilized in the block chain produced and also stored. This is done via security techniques in order to manage the development and confirmation of the money transacted. Little bit coin was the very first cryptocurrency which originated Buy Bitcoin EU.

Cryptocurrency is simply a component of the process of a digital data source running in the digital world. The identity of the real individual right here can not be identified. Additionally, there is no central authority which controls the trading of cryptocurrency. This currency amounts hard gold maintained by individuals and also the worth of which is intended to be getting raised by jumps and also bounds. The electronic system established by Satoshi is a decentralized one where only the miners have the right to make changes by verifying the deals launched. They are the only human touch providers in the system.

Imitation of the cryptocurrency is not feasible as the whole system is based upon tough core mathematics as well as cryptographic challenges. Only those individuals who are capable of addressing these challenges can make adjustments to the data source which is beside impossible. The deal when verified becomes part of the database or the block chain which can not be reversed then EU.

Cryptocurrency is nothing but digital cash which is produced with the assistance of coding strategy. It is based on peer-to-peer control system. Let us now understand just how one can be profited by trading in this market.

Can not be reversed or created: Though many people can rebut this that the transactions done are irreversible, yet the very best aspect of cryptocurrencies is that once the deal is validated. A brand-new block obtains included in the block chain and then the purchase can not be built. You end up being the proprietor of that block Buy Bitcoin EU.

Online deals: This not only makes it suitable for any individual being in any kind of component of the globe to transact, but it additionally alleviates the speed with which transaction gets processed. As contrasted to actual time where you need 3rd parties to come right into the photo to purchase house or gold or take a funding, You just need a computer system and a prospective customer or seller in instance of cryptocurrency. This concept is simple, speedy as well as filled with the potential customers of ROI.

The fee is reduced per purchase: There is low or no cost taken by the miners throughout the transactions as this is looked after by the network EU.

Availability: The concept is so sensible that all those people who have access to smart devices as well as laptop computers can access the cryptocurrency market and also trade in it anytime anywhere. This ease of access makes it much more rewarding. As the ROI is commendable, numerous countries like Kenya has introduced the M-Pesa system allowing bit coin gadget which currently allows 1 in every 3 Kenyans to have a little bit coin budget with them Acquire Bitcoin EU.

Just How to Profession Cryptocurrencies - The Fundamentals of Investing in Digital Currencies

Whether it's the concept of cryptocurrencies itself or diversification of their profile, individuals from all walks of life are investing in digital currencies. If you're new to the idea and questioning what's taking place, right here are some basic ideas and factors to consider for financial investment in cryptocurrencies EU.

What cryptocurrencies are readily available and also how do I purchase them?

With a market cap of about $278 billion, Bitcoin is one of the most well-known cryptocurrency. Ethereum is second with a market cap of over $74 billion. Besides these 2 money, there are a number of other alternatives also, consisting of Ripple ($ 28B), Litecoin ($ 17B) and also MIOTA ($ 13B).

Being initially to market, there are a great deal of exchanges for Bitcoin profession all over the world. BitStamp and Coinbase are two popular US-based exchanges. Bitcoin.de is a recognized European exchange. If you are interested in trading other electronic currencies together with Bitcoin, then a crypto marketplace is where you will certainly find all the electronic money in one area. Right here is a listing of exchanges according to their 24-hour profession quantity Purchase Bitcoin EU.

What alternatives do I have to save my money?

Another crucial factor to consider is storage space of the coins. One option, obviously, is to store it on the exchange where you get them. Nevertheless, you will need to take care in picking the exchange. The appeal of electronic currencies has actually resulted in several new, unidentified exchanges turning up all over. Take the time to do your due diligence so you can prevent the fraudsters.

An additional option you have with cryptocurrencies is that you can keep them yourself. One of the most safe alternatives for storing your financial investment is equipment purses. Companies like Ledger permit you save Bitcoins and several various other electronic currencies too.

What's the market like and also how can I discover more about it?

The cryptocurrency market rises and fall a lot. The unstable nature of the marketplace makes it much more suited for a long-lasting play.

6 Advantages of Buying Cryptocurrencies

The birth of bitcoin in 2009 opened doors to investment opportunities in a totally brand-new kind of property class - cryptocurrency. Whole lots entered the room means early Buy Bitcoin EU.

Fascinated by the tremendous possibility of these recently established but appealing properties, they bought cryptos at cheap rates. As a result, the bull run of 2017 saw them end up being millionaires/ billionaires. Even those that didn't stake much gained decent earnings.

Three years later on cryptocurrencies still remain lucrative, and the market is here to stay. You may currently be an investor/trader or maybe pondering trying your luck. In both cases, it makes sense to know the benefits of purchasing cryptocurrencies Purchase Bitcoin EU.

Cryptocurrency Has an Intense Future

According to a record titled Visualize 2030, released by Deutsche Bank, credit score and debit cards will lapse. Mobile phones as well as various other electronic tools will replace them.

Cryptocurrencies will no longer be viewed as derelicts however choices to existing monetary systems. Their benefits, such as safety and security, speed, marginal deal fees, ease of storage, and also relevance in the digital era, will certainly be acknowledged.

Concrete regulative guidelines would promote cryptocurrencies, and also boost their fostering. The record forecasts that there will certainly be 200 million cryptocurrency budget individuals by 2030, and almost 350 million by the year 2035.

Opportunity to be part of an Expanding Neighborhood

WazirX's #IndiaWantsCrypto project just recently completed 600 days. It has actually come to be a large activity sustaining the fostering of cryptocurrencies and blockchain in India.

Also, the current High court judgment squashing RBI's crypto banking ban from 2018 has instilled a brand-new thrill of confidence amongst Indian bitcoin and also cryptocurrency capitalists.

The 2020 Edelman Trust fund Measure Record likewise points out peoples' climbing faith in cryptocurrencies as well as blockchain modern technology. Based on the findings, 73% of Indians trust cryptocurrencies and also blockchain technology. 60% say that the effect of cryptocurrency/blockchain will declare.

By being a cryptocurrency financier, you stand to be a component of a successful and rapidly growing area Get Bitcoin EU.

Boosted Profit Prospective

Diversification is a crucial investment thumb policy. Particularly, throughout these times when the majority of the assets have incurred heavy losses due to financial hardships spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic.

While financial investment in bitcoin has given 26% returns from the starting of the year to day, gold has actually returned 16%. Several other cryptocurrencies have actually signed up three-digit ROI. Stock exchange as we all understand have actually uploaded disappointing efficiencies. Petroleum costs notoriously crashed listed below 0 in the month of April.

Consisting of bitcoin or any type of various other cryptocurrencies in your profile would protect your fund's worth in such uncertain international market scenarios. This fact was also thrilled upon by billionaire macro bush fund manager Paul Tudor Jones when a month back he introduced plans to purchase Bitcoin.

Cryptocurrency and also Tax Challenges

Cryptocurrencies have remained in the news just recently due to the fact that tax authorities think they can be used to wash cash as well as escape tax obligations. Even the Supreme Court assigned a Special Exploring Group on Black Money advised that trading in such money be discouraged. While China was reported to have actually prohibited some its biggest Bitcoin trading operators, countries such as the USA as well as Canada have laws in place to limit stock trade in cryptocurrency.

What is Cryptocurrency?

Cryptocurrency, as the name recommends, utilizes encrypted codes to impact a purchase. These codes are identified by other computers in the user area. Rather than utilizing fiat money, an on the internet ledger is updated by ordinary accounting entries. The customer's account is debited and also the seller's account is credited with such currency.

How are Deals Made on Cryptocurrency?

When a transaction is launched by one customer, her computer sends a public cipher or public trick that engages with the personal cipher of the person getting the money. If the receiver approves the transaction, the starting computer system attaches a piece of code onto a block of a number of such encrypted codes that is understood to every user in the network. Unique customers called 'Miners' can attach the additional code to the publicly shared block by solving a cryptographic puzzle and make more cryptocurrency in the process. When a miner validates a transaction, the document in the block can not be transformed or erased.

BitCoin, as an example, can be used on smart phones as well to enact acquisitions. All you require do is let the receiver scan a QR code from an application on your smartphone or bring them one-on-one by utilizing Near Area Communication (NFC). Keep in mind that this is really comparable to average on-line pocketbooks such as PayTM or MobiQuick Purchase Bitcoin EU.

Die-hard individuals advocate BitCoin for its decentralized nature, global approval, anonymity, permanence of deals and also information safety and security. Unlike paper money, no Reserve bank manages inflationary stress on cryptocurrency. Deal journals are stored in a Peer-to-Peer network. That suggests every integrated circuit in its computer power and duplicates of databases are kept on every such node in the network. Banks, on the various other hand, shop purchase data in main databases which are in the hands of private individuals hired by the company.

Just How Can Cryptocurrency be utilized for Money Laundering?

The very truth that there is no control over cryptocurrency purchases by Central Banks or tax obligation authorities indicates that purchases can not constantly be identified to a specific person. This indicates that we don't know whether the transactor has actually gotten the store of worth lawfully or not. The transactee's store is likewise suspect as no one can tell what factor to consider was offered for the currency got.

What does Indian Legislation Say concerning such Virtual Money?

Digital Money or cryptocurrencies are frequently seen as pieces of software program as well as hence categorize as a good under the Sale of Goods Act, 1930.

Being a good, indirect taxes on their sale or acquisition as well as GST on the solutions given by Miners would certainly apply to them.

There is still a fair bit of complication about whether cryptocurrencies stand as currency in India and the RBI, which commands over clearing up and payment systems and pre-paid negotiable instruments, has certainly not authorized buying and selling through this legal tender.

Any kind of cryptocurrencies obtained by a homeowner in India would certainly therefore be governed by the Foreign Exchange Monitoring Act, 1999 as an import of goods right into this nation.

India has actually enabled the trading of BitCoins in Special Exchanges with integrated safeguards for tax obligation evasion or money-laundering activities and enforcement of Know Your Consumer norms. These exchanges include Zebpay, Unocoin as well as Coinsecure.

Those buying BitCoins, for instance, are liable to be billed on rewards received.

Funding gains got due to sale of safety and securities entailing Digital money are also reliant be taxed as revenue as well as subsequent online filing of IT returns.

[charlielcuk880]

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Technology Stack That Locations You At Center Of Medical Care Digitalization.

Gain genuine insights and also focus on what you truly require to align your modern technology with your financial objectives. Improve operations, sales and advertising and marketing with fully-integrated, personalized process solutions. Layout the appropriate data source, API, as well as web server arrangement for maximum protection as well as scalability. Get the technical sources you need to personnel, assistance, as well as range your procedure as well as achieve your company-wide KPIs. As the online health and wellness market has taken off in last years, Creative27 has created solid expertises in this field. Dogtown media has dealt with Minneapolis Heart Institute to make an application for cardio emergency procedures. Maybe you're picturing advantages that can potentially shakeup the mHealth industry.

The recently upgraded variation of the application consists of info regarding scientific trials, clinical document gain access to, a "Discover A Medical professional" feature, all while maintaining the core physician-to-physician functionalities.

Designers should eliminate redundancies in between the systems, where app customers and EHR users might go into the same data into different areas.

Here are two means you can boost client retention and also enhance the user experience.

Realize your ideas right into trustworthy web and mobile software program solutions with our expert services.

. MAAN Softwares uses wonderful healthcare application advancement and options.

In the individual's mind, a connection is made between a mobile app as well as a specific use situation. Like - I most likely to Facebook to decompress and also see what my pals are up to, Linkedin to check out expert news as well as network updates, Epocrates to get medicine details and so on . Do you wish to remove manual procedures, working as obstacle to your company development? Realize your suggestions right into reputable internet and mobile software application services with our expert services.

To achieve it, you need to function constantly on every aspect of your app. Health care app designers at MLSDev have experience in structure MDP apps for the industry. The team helps by establishing a technique, prioritizing features, and also adjusting your concept for the real market. Our health care application designers know just how to deal with a large range of job. We intend the whole job first and afterwards split it right into smaller variations and produce a full item by sprints.

Medical Source Information Apps Produced With The Users Needs In Mind.

Such demand for mHealth application remedies results from the raising frequency of chronic diseases such as diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disorders, as well as weight problems, as well as the increasing fostering of digital wellness innovations. The combination of these variables and the expanding popularity of wearable innovations represent the booming development of the field and also the predicted profits development. Among solutions, the monitoring services sector represented the biggest share in 2019. Nonetheless, medical diagnosis solutions are forecasted to register the highest CAGR.

This is an additional means to demonstrate how our healthcare app programmers are making strides in this market. Appstem is a leading full-service mobile app style, method, as well as wellness application development agency based in San Francisco that focuses on structure applications that are made to offer an objective. With greater than 200 applications under its name, Appstem deals with a very knowledgeable group that recognizes properly to develop effective applications. One of the reasons the medical care sector is under-served by mobile wellness application is because the best clinical app concepts don't come from software designers - they come from doctor. Yet in many cases, physician lack the specialized expertise and also skills required to shepherd an app from principle to market. Mobile health applications are leading the way in enabling care companies to provide far better solutions to their clients.

A Lot More Related To Medical Care Application Development.

A full healthcare product uses a terrific chance to take clinical services to the following level and boost the efficiency of medical care. Our experienced healthcare application programmers are available to come to be a component of your product. We tackle all monitoring and also lawful procedures and also you get a result that is of good quality. Because of this, MLSDev medical care application developers created an application design that came to be the primary brand identity of Healexir and an option that positively affected the sales of Claire's spray.

Our healthcare app advancement team partnered with FliptRX to upgrade their mobile application experience as well as our designers worked side by side with the FliptRX group to build as well as release their mobile internet platform. Software program development in the medical area gives us medical applications can additionally significantly optimize business procedures in healthcare facilities.

Develop An Extraordinary Electronic Experience.

The Net of Points can be utilized to give continuous information concerning patients that can be examined to enhance the top quality of treatment. The Apple Watch and the aforementioned HeartGuide are products that sync this information to health apps. Mobile medical care applications developed for physicians and also various other specialists ought to aim to conserve them money and time while boosting accuracy of medical diagnoses or treatment recommendations. However, you can not develop a terrific medical care mobile application unless you carefully evaluate what your competitors are doing. Their objective is to make healthcare available to all by including ideal techniques and also providing a substantial series of extraordinary services. Digiryte is a superior Web and mobile application development firm that is generally recognized for its technical expertise as well as excellent business knowledge.

Several of their widely known customers are Farms2Tables, Harvard College of Public Health, MIT, and Fidelity. IEC conformity is a have to if your health application will certainly deal with a peripheral medical device to collect as well as move individual information. We compose system examinations, which are examinations that instantly check brand-new code as it's written to make certain your mobile health and wellness applications operate simply the means you intend it to be. Next we carry out androiddevelopers.co/belarus/minsk/dektry beta screening in addition to our customers, to ensure that the site is functioning the means it was meant as well as according to the initial tale.

Tech Pile That Places You At Center Of Medical Care Digitalization.

Recognizing the requirements of others as well as uniformity in understanding our techniques giving full fulfillment is our highest possible benefit. The merit in supplying the Android application development solutions lies in ending up it throughout amazingly well.

Sight and share prescriptions, therapy history, and also medical care insurance policy info all at one area. It would certainly depend completely on the intent of your clinical mobile app growth procedure. If you. are just looking for a system to enable communication between the employees as well as you have a large team, select Android application. Yet if you are seeking a system for them to share encrypted data, clinical records etc., choose iphone since the platform is naturally more protected. The growth of digital products provides us all the most important thing-- the capability to conserve time. Today, a mobile phone with web accessibility suffices to promptly send a letter, discover a far better course, or make a reservation at a dining establishment.

Medical Care Applications Are Supplied For:.

Our group of specialists, with over years of experience in personalized mhealth app growth, is constantly our finest and foremost resource on every custom mobile application development job. Our mobile health and wellness app layout, advancement, and project monitoring is always done in-house. And also obviously because Topflight Apps is a medical software application development firm, it supplies medical care options that are protected and HIPAA certified. The newly redesigned variation of the application includes details regarding medical tests, clinical document access, a "Find A Doctor" function, all while preserving the core physician-to-physician functionalities. Our healthcare application developers deal with you to develop and establish HIPAA compliant healthcare apps that enhance a client's top quality of treatment, assisting to supply medical solutions to those who require it most.

[perfectirishgifts]

Amazon-Owned Self-Driving Taxi Zoox Reveals Its Secret Vehicle

New Post has been published on https://perfectirishgifts.com/amazon-owned-self-driving-taxi-zoox-reveals-its-secret-vehicle/

Amazon-Owned Self-Driving Taxi Zoox Reveals Its Secret Vehicle

New zoox vehicle with 4 seats and symmetric design

This morning, long-time stealth startup Zoox, a company founded by a radical Australian designer and a Stanford roboticist finally unveiled their new design that they feel is not merely the car of the future, but the thing that comes after the car.

Most teams building self-driving cars (either to act as private cars or as hire-a-ride taxis) who have put all their work on the hard problem of making a safe and working self-driving software system, adapting it to existing vehicles. Zoox took on the challenge of designing a vehicle from scratch, feeling that would let them really do it right in order to win the future of mobility.

Zoox vehicle interior. Long lasting seat materials, airbags all around, charging stations and of … [] course, cupholders.

During last week’s flood of big news, photographs of the vehicle leaked and generated some comment. The official launch was today. The design bears a resemblance to many other robotic vehicles meant for group transit. That includes a high-roof somewhat boxy (or more correctly trapezoidal) shape, sliding doors and low floor for easy access, and social seating, with people facing one another rather than in rows like a car. I’m calling this rough form a “Rozium” (Robotic Trapezium) and it can also be found in most PRT pods and shuttles starting with ULTra at Heathrow, Navya, Easymile, Olli, and most recently in a bulkier form in the Cruise Origin.

Zoox’s core differences though, are not in the shape, but in these design elements:

It is completely symmetrical, having no front or back, and moves equally in both directions. All components are duplicated, including motors and sensors.

The roof and sensor mountings have been designed to give the sensors a better view. There are 2 LIDARs (Hesai and Velodyne) at each corner, one looking out, the other looking down to try to get a good view with no blind spots. There are also 3 cameras at each corner and two on top — and 5 radars per corner to boot.

The LIDARs have the 150m range of 905nm devices, which is a bit low for full-speed highway driving, but sufficient for urban.

There is 4 wheel independent suspension under computer control, to smooth out the ride.

Passengers face one another, allowing for a more social experience.

The interior is spartan, not the overcrowded complex dashboard of current cars and some robotaxi designs. Just a small display and charging port. The seats mix taxi goals (ease of cleaning and able to handle heavy use) with car design.

The electric vehicle design allows a low center of gravity, and combined with wheels moved to the corners of the vehicle, a more flexible interior design with more space for the same footprint.

Each wheel can also turn independently, allowing for an 8.6m turning radius. In many cases, it will not turn at all, when it wants to change direction of travel, it just changes.

The vehicle is narrow and short enough, given that, to handle streets and driveways that might be a challenge for wider vehicles.

Airbags are integrated into the special seats and their enclosing walls for extra crash safety. Zoox claims they designed the seats around safety, rather than trying to add safety to the classical passenger cabin/seat design. As a result, all seats get full protection, unlike most cars which focus on the front seats.

Zoox reports they have passed all crash tests included in the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards. Today, most self-driving vehicles can’t pass other parts of the FMVSS though work is underway to modify the standards. In addition, as Zoox will not sell vehicles to other companies if it operates a robotaxi service, it may not be subject to rules like the FMVSS that only cover vehicles that are sold, or it may use an exemption as most custom robotaxis plan to.

While primarily intended for urban travel, it can reach up to 75mph to make use of urban freeways.

Computers and in the floor and 133kwh of batteries are under the seats, sufficient for a full day of taxi operation.

Zoox’s autonomy stack is map-based (like every major player except Tesla) with neural network perception and prediction. They make HD maps before driving any street.

An operations center permits remote humans to solve strategic problems for the vehicle (similar to most teams..) They do not remotely drive them.

Zoox front/back (they’re the same) with sensor array

Zoox is devoted to the robotaxi plan. Customers will not own a Zoox vehicle, rather they will summon one in a manner similar to Uber, and may share the ride in certain situations. They will also fit well to groups moving together. In this reveal, Zoox has said very little about their operational plan, other than they have done their testing in Las Vegas and San Francisco, two cities they think are plum for robotaxi service.

Zoox’s challenges

While most teams would like the freedom that comes from having a vehicle custom designed to be a robotaxi, most teams have avoided the huge effort that that entails, including in design, manufacturing and scaling. Tesla TSLA designs its own vehicles, which look like standard cars, but which can easily have their controls removed to leave a seamless seat where the driver used to sit. Cruise, as a part of GM, has been able to use those resources to make the Origin, a rough competitor to Zoox, though few details have been revealed. Cruise states the Origin is not just a concept, that it is headed to production.

The challenge was so great that Zoox ran out of money in early 2020, a bad time to do so. It elected to sell itself to Amazon AMZN at a price barely more than its prior valuation. On the other hand, Amazon is a well resourced parent to have which can pull off the big challenge as well as GM or Waymo. (Waymo did design a custom vehicle for experiments but currently builds its fleet by adapting existing vehicle models.)

Detail on seats, a mix of transit and car design, minimalist with small screen

In many cases, Zoox’s original design will offer a better experience to the rider. The question is, how much better, and is it enough to make a difference when, some day several years from now, there is a competitive marketplace for rides? Are Zoox’s advantages from the custom design “nice to haves” or “must haves” in the competition game, and can any “must haves” be integrated by competitors before the competition really heats up?

We also don’t know if their choices are right. For example, a fraction of riders don’t like riding backwards while some are fine with it. People can presumably express that preference, but what happens when the vehicle reverses direction? Will this be only for solo trips or groups, or will it be more extensively used with strangers pooling together who may not want to stare one another in the face?

Competition is not close. Only Waymo hosts a ride service open to the public with robotaxis and no drivers, and that’s only in a limited area, and supervising drivers have returned to expand that area. For a few years, companies will be able to deploy in cities with no other provider, and face no competition. Only once two companies go head to head in the same city (likely San Francisco) will we see that.

Will the nicer ride make the difference compared to other competitive factors? Will the nicer ride or vehicle allow a company to charge more and still be chosen? Competitors will not be standing still. Each will improve and tweak pricing and service to win an edge, and they will be willing in the early years to lose money (as Uber UBER has done for its whole existence) in order to get that edge. Every company knows that it must win, for at some point the robotaxi service convinces people not to bother owning at least one, and eventually all of their cars, and becomes the replacement of the automobile industry — a very fat prize.

Read/leave comments here.

From Transportation in Perfectirishgifts

[tapatapreview]

Sony WH-1000XM4 Wireless Headphones Review, Buy at Rs. 28,490

Sony WH-1000XM4 Wireless Headphones review : The WH-1000XM4 is the newest in Sony’s famous line of flagship wireless headphones. Premium wireless headphones have been launched in India just over a month after the global launch, and are available for purchase at Amazon, Sony retail stores, big multi-brand electronics shops, and Sony’s online shopping site shopatsc.com. With the 1000XM4, Sony decided not to reinvent the wheel again, but to put slight changes around the board and further refine what was already a successful product.

Priced at Rs. 28,490 in India, Sony WH-1000XM4 is the latest flagship in the wireless headphone line of the Japanese business. The successor to the WH-1000XM3 looks pretty much the same at first sight, but there are some changes both on the top and under the hood that make this a stronger pair of headphones.

Sony’s 360 Reality audio style, which offers surreal space audio experience, is among the most over-the-top functionality. LDAC support for 990 kbps bitrate transfer for your higher-quality titles is also available. Mind you, aptX support is gone so the Hi-Res audio playback performance will take a dive.

Sony WH-1000XM4 Design

Visually, the 1000XM4s are the same as their counterparts. They even come in the same two colours, but there’s no way to tell them apart when you see someone wearing them. The only distinction is the interior of the left earcup, which is where the optical wear recognition sensor is mounted.

Nothing especially incorrect with that, as the architecture of the 1000XM3 was already very refined, with equal parts of minimalism and versatility, allowing it to fit into most scenarios. The choice of fabrics is also top notch here, with high-quality polycarbonate on the exterior and supple faux leather on the inside.

Sony decided to maintain the core concept of the 1000X series through its several iterations. Versions 3 and 4 differ somewhat from 1 and 2, but they both share the same unmistakable appearance.

Also See : Redmi 9i price in India, Full Specifications, Detail Review

It’s not a bad thing to me. An aesthetically appealing style with a polished, elegant look that is discreet enough to be worn outside without attracting attention to it.

The headbands are flexible with a satisfactory sliding mechanism. One problem with the moving, though, is that it needs to be done while the headphones are off the ears. That’s because if you wear it, the headbands get bent, stopping the ear cups from falling easily onto the metal bars.

On the exterior of the headphones, you’ll find two circular power / pair control buttons and a 3.5 mm aux button that switches between noise cancellation and ambient sound. The outer portion of the right earcup serves as a touch-capable control panel that can be used to trigger, pause or skip music and increase or lower the volume.

Sony WH-1000XM4 Features

The Sony WH-1000XM3 was feature-rich upon publication, full of creative control schemes and clever implementations of its noise cancellation technology. Everything that was wonderful about the WH-1000XM3 headphones was turned over to the latest WH-1000XM4 predecessors, along with some new tricks, too. They ‘re not all gimmicks, though — they ‘re practical features that really function as advertised.

The 1000X series has always had these touch movements, and I’ve never been a fan of them. It’s a fun idea to demo your clients in a shop or show off to your friends, but it’s not the most realistic and user-friendly way to control it. First of all, the movements are only accessible on the right ear cup, but whether you’re left-handed, even if you’re right-handed, you’ll find them very awkward

The adjustable button also returns to the Sony WH-1000XM4 Wireless Headphones, and you can adjust its function using the Sony Headphones Connection app. I tended to use it to monitor active noise cancellation and hearing modes, but you can also set it up to easily call Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa. You may also invoke the default voice assistant on your mobile by clicking it once and leaving it up.

The only piece of bad news is about the codecs. WH-1000XM4 supports SBC, AAC, and LDAC, but multi-device pairing does not work for LDAC, because based on what is provided by each of your paired systems, you will be taken to AAC on both or SBC on both. Right now, this is the premium you pay for multi-device matching, that you’re going to lose some audio quality for the sake of convenience.

Sony WH-1000XM4 Audio Performance

Sony uses the same 40 mm drivers in the Sony WH-1000XM4 Wireless Headphones as in the WH-1000XM3, but there is no sound and blend between the WH-1000XM4 and the WH-1000XM3 headphones that followed them. It’s a warm and balanced sound that does well to deliver a wide variety of sounds as needed and specifics that can be penetrated by a strong bass output.

WH-1000XM4 supports SBC, AAC, and LDAC codecs for transfer over enhanced Bluetooth 5.1 connexions. There is no support for aptX and aptX HD codecs, since Sony has now moved to MediaTek processors on its headphones, which lack native support for these codecs. While LDAC is fine and has fairly broad support for Android these days, it’s not as reliable as aptX codecs because of its ability to slip back to lower bitrates when the relation is less than ideal. I’m going to explore this further in the networking section.

The mid-range also profits from cleaning up the bass area. The bloated bassline of the WH-1000XM3 blew into the lower mid-range, producing extra warmth in male voices and making the sound a boom. The mid-range WH-1000XM4 is even more stable in contrast. It’s not ahead, but it doesn’t go to the back of the mix, and basically, there’s a strong sense of balance all over the board.

Also See : 15 hot tech skills to get a job — Without Certification

Active noise cancellation on the headphones is excellent; standard home noises such as ceiling fans and air conditioners have been virtually blocked out, and the headset has also had a significant effect outdoors. The level of silence stopped short of being exaggerated and unsettling; rather than feeling like sitting in a vacuum, it felt more real and realistic. Importantly, this made a major change to my desire to immerse myself in and interact in music, with less distractions and less background noise. This, of course, even improved when viewing Reality shows and movies.

Sony WH-1000XM4 Battery Performance

Although the Sony WH-1000XM4 didn’t get a boost in battery life relative to their predecessors, they still delivered a significant 30-hour noise cancellation switched on and about 38-hour noise cancellation switched off.

30 hours would be enough for quite a few videos, several flights or days of regular use while at work. In addition, this time, there’s still fast charging. You will get around five hours of charge from a 10-minute top-up, according to Sony. It takes about three hours for a complete fee. Luckily, all this is going to happen via USB Type-C.

Also See : FAUG Game : Can it make space in our heart similar to PUBG?

When used in this worst-case scenario mode, the 25-hour battery life is not bad, but definitely not the 30-hours claimed and far more spectacular. Luckily, the headphones have a fast charging option that offers a 10-minute charging of around five hours of use. This feature works as expected, and I got about six hours of use in the same worst-case test situation as the 25-hour test figure from before, so thumbs up for that.

Conclusion

The last complaint is about the life of the cell. While not bad by any stretch, Sony ‘s goal fails a tremendous margin. Battery life is something that Sony’s headphones are usually excellent at, and I anticipated to see more in this respect. Not only do these headsets assert the same number as the previous generation edition, they also fall short of that goal.

It’s tempting to give the WH-1000XM4 a rough time because of their height. After all, many believe these to be the finest wireless headphones on the market, and they still cost just a penny. Although I would refuse to name them the best without making any comparisons with their rivals, I’m going to say that the WH-1000XM4 is a very, very fine pair of headphones and that you should actually buy them if noise-cancellation, wireless audio and sound quality are your goals in that order.

All of this makes the Sony WH-1000XM4 is the very best pair of wireless headphones you can purchase right now, with a long shot.

For the latest tech news and reviews, Follow TapaTap Review on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

Originally published at https://www.tapatapreview.com on September 19, 2020.

[jbaquerot]

Cybersecurity multinationals Fortinet, Trend Micro and McAfee Labs predict a rise in the use of machine learning and AI methods to create more effective attacks, including against cloud systems, as well as in business process compromise scams, denial of services and ransomware attacks. Threat actors will leverage machine learning and blockchain technologies to expand their evasion techniques, says Trend Micro research and development centre TrendLabs in its ‘Paradigm Shifts’ 2018 predictions report. Cyberattackers will use more machine learning to create attacks, experiment with combinations of machine learning and AI, and expand their efforts to discover and disrupt the machine learning models used by defenders, McAfee Labs predicts in its ‘Adversarial machine learning arms race revs up’ November 2017 report. “During the year, we expect researchers will show that an attack was driven by some form of machine learning. We already see black-box attacks that search for vulnerabili- ties and do not follow any previous model, making them difficult to detect.” For example, machine learning could help improve the effectiveness of social engineering and make phishing attacks more difficult to identify by harvesting and synthesising more data than a human can. It can also increase the effectiveness of using weak or stolen credentials on the growing number of connected devices and help attackers scan for vulnerabilities, which will boost the speed of attacks and shorten the time from discovery to exploitation.

SKILLS & RESOURCES

Skills and resources are the key elements in any cyberattacker’s arsenal. All attacks require a vulnerability in the network – whether in the form of technology or people, TrendLabs reports. Cyberattackers are expected to analyse machine learning models through a combination of probing from the outside to map the model, reading published research and public domain material and trying to exploit an insider. “The goal is evasion or poisoning. Once the attackers think they have a reasonable recreation of a model, they will work to get past it, or to damage the model so that either their malware gets through or nothing gets through and the model is worthless.” However, combined human-machine teams show great potential to swing the advantage back to the defenders, states McAfee Labs. Machine learning is already making significant contributions to security, helping to detect and correct vulnerabilities, identify suspicious behaviour and contain zero-day attacks. Human-machine teaming is becoming an essential part of cybersecurity, augmenting human judgment and decision- making with machine speed and pattern recognition. “Combining machine learning, AI and game theory to probe for vulnerabilities in our software and the systems is the next step beyond penetration testing and uses the capacity and unique insights of machines to seek bugs and other exploitable weaknesses.” Further, because adversaries will attack the models, defenders will respond with layers of models, each operating independently, at the end point such as in the cloud and in the data centre. Each model has access to different inputs and is trained on different data sets, providing overlapping protections, McAfee Labs adds. Machine learning, however, can only be as good and accurate as the context it gets from its sources. “We have found that certain ransomware use loaders that certain machine learning solutions are unable to detect because the malware is packaged not to look malicious. This is especially problematic for software that employs pre-execution machine learning, which analyses files without any execution or emulation,” according to the TrendLabs report. While machine learning helps improve protection, it should not take over security mechanisms and should be considered an additional security layer incorporated into an in-depth defence strategy. Local information technology security services firm Galix MD Simeon Tassev highlights that South African businesses must put in place tools such as AI and analytics to identify, collect and analyse data quickly and address issues, but they face a cybersecurity skills shortage, in line with global norms. A lack of awareness or understanding can lead to insufficient security measures or the wrong decisions. Companies need the right skills – whether these are in-house or hired – to cross-check and validate their responses to changing cybersecurity risks and vulnerabilities, he emphasises.

RANSOMWARE ATTACKS

Cybersecurity multinationals forecast the continuing proliferation of ransomware attacks, which will increasingly target industrial and utility systems and industrial Internet of Things (IoT) networks, as well as cloud systems and service providers. Although the magnitude of ransomware has already grown 35-fold over the last year with ransomworms and other types of attacks, there is more to come. The ransom of commercial services is big business, highlights Fortinet global security strategist Derek Manky. In 2018, digital extortion will be at the core of most cybercriminals’ business model and will propel them into other schemes that will get their hands on potentially hefty payouts, TrendLabs avers in its report. Further extortion and fraud attacks can be anticipated in 2018, even as other types of digital extortion become more prevalent. “Ransomware is evolving and is being deployed with more regularity. While targets, attack groups and tactics may change, there is growing concern that ransomware could easily be combined with nation-state- developed exploits to spread through networks at an alarming rate,” highlights Trend Micro Southern Africa manager Anvee Alderton. “What we are learning from these attacks is that it is vital to patch any known vulner- abilities the moment a fix is available. Simul- taneously, it is important that we understand how security can be undermined and to research the exploits that are available for popular software.” One of the biggest challenges to create machine learning models is gathering data that is relevant and representative of the rapidly changing malware environment, adds McAfee Labs. Further, researchers have already demonstrated the possibilities of using machine learning to monitor traffic and identify possible zero-day exploits and have also proved machine learning models have blind spots that adversaries can probe for exploitation. Cybercriminals will use these same capabilities to find zero-day exploits. Cybercrime organisations will use more machine learning to modify code based on how and what has been detected by penetration- and detection-testing services – offered by cybercrime organisations – to make their penetration tools less detectable, says Manky. “Machine learning allows cybercriminals to quickly refine their technology to better circumvent security devices used by the targeted company or government agency. To perform such sophisticated scanning and analysis, however, criminal service providers have had to create computing clusters leveraging hijacked compute resources.” Coinhive, a recent example, is distributed through browser plug-ins that infect end-user machines and hijack their compute power to mine for virtual currency. This computing botnet process is shortening the time from concept to delivery of new malware that is both more malicious and more difficult to detect and stop. “Once true AI is integrated into this process, the time between a breach and the time it is detected or protected will be reduced to a matter of milliseconds, rather than the hours or days [as is the case] today,” emphasises Manky.

CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE

Cybercriminals will begin to combine AI technologies with multivector attacks to scan for, detect and exploit weaknesses in a cloud provider’s environment, predicts Manky. FortiGuard Labs recorded 62-million malware detections in one quarter in 2017. Out of these, nearly 17 000 malware variants were detected from over 2 500 different malware families. “Increased automation of malware will only make this situation more urgent in the coming year,” he says. Further, cybercriminals will turn to IoT devices to create proxies to obfuscate their location and Web traffic, especially considering that law enforcement usually refers to intellectual property addresses and logs for criminal investigation and postinfection forensics, TrendLabs highlights. “A large network of anonymised devices, running on default credentials and with virtually no logs, could serve as jumping-off points for cybercriminals to surreptitiously facilitate their activities within the compromised network.” The next big target for ransomware is likely to be the ransom of commercial services such as cloud service providers. The financial opportunities are clear, as cloud computing is expected to grow to $162-billion by 2020. Cloud services present a huge potential attack surface, adds Manky. Government entities, critical infrastructure, law enforcement, healthcare and a wide range of industries of all sizes use the cloud. Healthcare and critical infrastructure providers are at greatest risk from the effects of an attack and the advances in cyberattack techniques. “Most critical infrastructure and operational technology networks are notoriously fragile and originally designed to be air-gapped and isolated. Applying security as an afterthought once a network designed to operate in isolation is connected to the digital world is rarely very effective,” warns Manky. Because of the high value of these net- works, and the potential for devastating results should they be compromised or knocked offline, critical infrastructure and healthcare providers will need modern cyberdefence. “The security these systems currently have in place will not be enough. It is imperative that organisations migrate to advanced security systems built around quality intelligence and an integrated security fabric that can see across the distributed network and counter the sophisticated attack systems being developed and deployed by attackers, as well as easily integrate advances in collaboration platforms and AI systems into the fabric,” states Manky. Tassev concurs and adds that, to partici- pate in the global digital economy, South African businesses must demonstrate their ability to secure their systems and their customers’ data. “Ensuring access to up-to-date security skills is going to be as important as actively participating in developing security skills in South Africa. This will become increasingly important as AI, virtual reality and other new technologies continue to emerge,” he concludes.

[anytutor37-com]

Can online learning be better? These educators think so

Islenia Milien for NPR

Wayne Banks is a middle school math teacher and principal in residence for KIPP charter schools.These days, like many teachers around the country, the 29-year-old is working from his apartment in Brooklyn, New York.

Banks has never been formally trained to teach online, but that hasn't stopped him from trying to make his classes as engaging and challenging as possible.

"I really took the opportunity in March to be like, 'I just have to figure this out.' [It was] a do or die for me," Banks says.

Now, with many of the nation's largest school districts beginning the fall semester online-only, Banks is part of a national effort to improve the quality of distance learning. The goal: Deliver better online learning, at no charge, to any district that wants it.

A group of public and charter school leaders launched an online pilot this summer called the National Summer School Initiative. (They are funded by education philanthropists, including the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation and the Walton Family Foundation, which is also an NPR funder.) Co-founder Ian Rowe, who leads Public Prep charter schools in New York City, says they are working right now with about 12,000 students in more than 50 locations. Rowe and his co-founders want to know: "Could we, over a five week summer program, start to really isolate certain best practice principles that could then survive into the fall?"

NSSI centers on mentor teachers, like Wayne Banks, who tape video lessons with a group of "showcase students"-- kind of like you'll see workout instructors on YouTube leading a few people through a routine with modifications for different levels of fitness.

Banks is invested in his own best practices to keep his students actively learning and discussing math concepts. In the spring he found a web site called that allows his students to work on a problem while he watches "over their shoulders," and then engages them in discussions, sometimes in Zoom breakout rooms. "That is the core of my class," he says. "We are talking about math every single day."

He also takes the time to get to know his students and make sure they know each other. He does icebreaker games, calls them at home and recently, when he got a new keyboard, he played them a song.

Banks says as a mentor teacher, his role is to "guide and inspire" a group of partner teachers, who work more closely with groups of 25 or 30 students. Collaborating on lesson planning, he says, is helpful for everyone's professional development.

"Hundreds of teachers from across the country are all teaching the same content as you. And you know, the way that one person thinks about a math problem is not the way that someone else thinks about a math problem." He says being able to talk over strategies, "can create ideas and generate just like a fresh electric energy around being able to teach kids at a high level."

As far as remote teaching goes, NSSI's offerings resemble what some better-resourced private schools were doing in the spring. Together the mentor and partner teachers are teaching nearly four hours of classes a day this summer. NSSI has partnered with the nonprofit Biobus for science instruction, and the National Dance Institute for movement classes.

Many public schools with lower-income students, by contrast, offered only a minimum of real-time instruction this past spring. A recent survey of 474 school districts by the American Institutes for Research showed that high-poverty districts generally had lower expectations for how long students should be spending on schoolwork each day. Elementary schools were less likely to offer live classes taught by the student's own teacher. And students in high-poverty schools were more likely to be reviewing material rather than learning something new.

Sarah Evrard's daughter Lillian is going into fourth grade at a Catholic school in Milwaukee, and is taking summer school classes now with NSSI. Evrard says, in the spring, Lillian and her classmates "would have Zoom meetings with their teachers daily and then they would pick up a packet at school, which was their work for the week." She says the school avoided doing a lot of real-time instruction because some children were sharing devices with siblings, and some families were working during the day and had to oversee schoolwork in the evenings. "But the piece that for us felt was kind of missing was that one-on-one teacher interaction."

She says that's exactly what they're getting with NSSI, and her daughter loves it. "She was not exactly thrilled when I told her she was signing up for summer school," Evrard says, but now Lillian is being challenged, engaged, and she's meeting kids from all over the country.

Ian Rowe says his organization is hoping to team up with schools around the country in the fall. He says school systems can either pick their own local superstar teachers to be mentors, or they can use the initiative's teachers and lessons. Local teachers can then network with others around the country and get feedback on their online performance in a way that didn't necessarily happen this past semester.

"Frankly, we were all thrust into remote learning in the spring. And, you know, not everyone was ready for that," Rowe says. "Now I think we've learned a lot about what elements can work and we're trying to be a resource on that front."

But some are concerned that this program may be overpromising. For one, the equity issues that interfere with some families — including some of Lillian Evrard's classmates — being able to take part in real-time instruction aren't going anywhere. Many districts are still working on getting devices and Wi-Fi to all students amid widespread budget cuts. And while NSSI won't necessarily cost districts money, the organization is not providing computers or an Internet connection.

And then there's the pedagogy. Many high-performing charter school networks that are associated with NSSI, like Achievement First and Ascend Learning, have been criticized in the past for an approach to teaching that is overly scripted and standardized, and that emphasizes high test scores above all. This "no-excuses" model has been falling out of favor in recent years.

Justin Reich is a researcher in education technology at MIT. He's been working with districts and listening to students and teachers to help reimagine instruction this fall. He says he'd prefer to see each district give teachers the time, training and empowerment to plan online teaching right, rather than rushing for a prefabricated solution.

"I think adequate turnkey instruction may be possible. I don't think it's responsible to promise excellent turnkey curriculum and training."

However, Reich acknowledges that with so many districts scrambling to plan remote learning this fall, NSSI may be on to something. He says simply putting a lot of talented teachers together and giving them training and a clear direction "can, in lots of cases, be way better than having every school and district figure these things out on their own."

It's almost August. Many districts may be grateful for an out-of-the box solution — in both senses of the phrase.

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

This content was originally published here.

[tak4hir0]

This is the the last of three posts on the course I regularly teach, CS 330, Organization of Programming Languages. The first two posts covered programming language styles and mathematical concepts. This post covers the last 1/4 of the course, which focuses on software security, and related to that, the programming language Rust. This course topic might strike you as odd: Why teach security in a programming languages course? Doesn’t it belong in, well, a security course? I believe that if we are to solve our security problems, then we must build software with security in mind right from the start. To do that, all programmers need to know something about security, not just a handful of specialists. Security vulnerabilities are both enabled and prevented by various language (mis)features, and programming (anti)patterns. As such, it makes sense to introduce these concepts in a programming (languages) course, especially one that all students must take. This post is broken into three parts: the need for security-minded programming, how we cover this topic in 330, and our presentation of Rust. The post came to be a bit longer than I’d anticipated; apologies! Security is a programming (languages) concern The Status Quo: Too Much Post-hoc Security There is a lot of interest these days in securing computer systems. This interest follows from the highly publicized roll call of serious data breaches, denial of service attacks, and system hijacks. In response, security companies are proliferating, selling computerized forms of spies, firewalls, and guard towers. There is also a regular call for more “cybersecurity professionals” to help man the digital walls. It might be that these efforts are worth their collective cost, but call me skeptical. I believe that a disproportionate portion of our efforts focuses on adding security to a system after it has been built. Is your server vulnerable to attack? If so, no problem: Prop an intrusion detection system in front of it to identify and neuter network packets attempting to exploit the vulnerability. There’s no doubt that such an approach is appealing; too bad it doesn’t actually work. As computer security experts have been saying since at least the 60s, if you want a system to actually be secure then it must be designed and built with security in mind. Waiting until the system is deployed is too late. Building Security In There is a mounting body of work that supports building secure systems from the outset. For example, the Building Security In Maturity Model (BSIMM) catalogues the processes followed by a growing list of companies to build more secure systems. Companies such as Synopsys and Veracode offer code analysis products that look for security flaws. Processes such as Microsoft’s Security Development Lifecycle and books such as Gary McGraw‘s Software Security: Building Security In, and Sami Saydjari‘s recently released Engineering Trustworthy Systems identify a path toward better designed and built systems. These are good efforts. Nevertheless, we need even more emphasis on the “build security in” mentality so we can rely far less on necessary, but imperfect, post-hoc stuff. For this shift to happen, we need better education. Security in a Programming Class Choosing performance over security Programming courses typically focus on how to use particular languages to solve problems efficiently. Functionality is obviously paramount, with performance an important secondary concern. But in today’s climate shouldn’t security be at the same level of importance as performance? If you argue that security is not important for every application, I would say the same is true of performance. Indeed the rise of slow, easy-to-use scripting languages is a testament to that. But sometimes performance is very important, or becomes so later, and the same is true of security. Indeed, many security bugs arise because code originally written for a benign setting ends up in a security-sensitive one. As such, I believe educators should regularly talk about how to make code more secure just as we regularly talk about how to make it more efficient. To do this requires a change in mindset. A reasonable approach, when focusing on correctness and efficiency, is to aim for code that works under expected conditions. But expected use is not good enough for security: Code must be secure under all operating conditions. Normal users are not going to input weirdly formatted files to to PDF viewers. But adversaries will. As such, students need to understand how a bug in a program can be turned into a security vulnerability, and how to stop it from happening. Our two lectures in CS 330 on security shift between illustrating a kind of security vulnerability, identifying the conditions that make that vulnerability possible, and developing a defense that eliminates those conditions. For the latter we focus on language properties (e.g., type safety) and programming patterns (e.g., validating input). Security Bugs In our first lecture, we start by introducing the high-level idea of a buffer overflow vulnerability, in which an input is larger than the buffer designed to hold it. We hint at how to exploit it by smashing the stack. A key feature of this attack is that while the program intends for an input to be treated as data, the attacker is able to trick the program to treat it as code which does something harmful. We also look at command injection, and see how it similarly manifests when an attacker tricks the program to treat data as code. SQL injection: malicious code from benign parts Our second lecture covers vulnerabilities and attacks specific to web applications, including SQL injection, Cross-site Request Forgery (CSRF), and Cross-site scripting (XSS). Once again, these vulnerabilities all have the attribute that untrusted data provided by an attacker can be cleverly crafted to trick a vulnerable application to treat that data as code. This code can be used to hijack the program, steal secrets, or corrupt important information. Coding Defenses It turns out the defense against many of these vulnerabilities is the same, at a high level: validate any untrusted input before using it, to make sure it’s benign. We should make sure an input is not larger than the buffer allocated to hold it, so the buffer is not overrun. In any language other than C or C++, this check happens automatically (and is generally needed to ensure type safety). For the other four attacks, the vulnerable application uses the attacker input when piecing together another program. For example, an application might expect user inputs to correspond to a username and password, splicing these inputs into a template SQL program with which it queries a database. But the inputs could contain SQL commands that cause the query to do something different than intended. The same is true when constructing shell commands (command injection), or Javascript and HTML programs (cross-site scripting). The defense is also the same, at a high level: user inputs need to either have potentially dangerous content removed or made inert by construction (e.g., through the use of prepared statements). None of this stuff is new, of course. Most security courses talk about these topics. What is unusual is that we are talking about them in a “normal” programming languages course. Our security project reflects the defensive-minded orientation of the material. While security courses tend to focus on vulnerability exploitation, CS 330 focuses on fixing the bugs that make an application vulnerable. We do this by giving the students a web application, written in Ruby, with several vulnerabilities in it. Students must fix the vulnerabilities without breaking the core functionality. We test the fixes automatically by having our auto-grading system test functionality and exploitability. Several hidden tests exploit the initially present vulnerabilities. The students must modify the application so these cases pass (meaning the vulnerability has been removed and/or can no longer be exploited) without causing any of the functionality-based test cases to fail. Low-level Control, Safely The most dangerous kind of vulnerability allows an attacker to gain arbitrary code execution (ACE): Through exploitation, the attacker is able to execute code of their choice on the target system. Memory management errors in type-unsafe languages (C and C++) comprise a large class of ACE vulnerabilities. Use-after-free errors, double-frees, and buffer overflows are all examples. The latter is still the single largest category of vulnerability today, according to MITRE’s Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) database. Programs written in type-safe languages, such as Java or Ruby, 1 are immune to these sorts of memory errors. Writing applications in these languages would thus eliminate a large category of vulnerabilities straightaway. 2 The problem is that type-safe languages’ use of abstract data representations and garbage collection (GC), which make programming easier, remove low-level control and add overhead that is sometimes hard to bear. C and C++ are essentially the only game in town 3 for operating systems, device drivers, and embedded devices (e.g., IoT), which cannot tolerate the overhead and/or lack of control. And we see that these systems are regularly and increasingly under attack. What are we to do? Rust: Type safety without GC In 2010, the Mozilla corporation (which brings you Firefox) officially began an ambitious project to develop a safe language suitable for writing high-performance programs. The result is Rust. 4 In Rust, type-safety ensures (with various caveats) that a program is free of memory errors and free of data races. In Rust, type safety is possible without garbage collection, which is not true of any other mainstream language. Rust, the programming language In CS 330, we introduce Rust and its basic constructs, showing how Rust is arguably closer to a functional programming language than it is to C/C++. (Rust’s use of curly braces and semi-colons might make it seem familiar to C/C++ programmers, but there’s a whole lot more that’s different than is the same!) We spend much of our time talking about Rust’s use of ownership and lifetimes. Ownership (aka linear typing) is used to carefully track pointer aliasing, so that memory modified via one alias cannot mistakenly corrupt an invariant assumed by another. Lifetimes track the scope in which pointed-to memory is live, so that it is freed automatically, but no sooner than is safe. These features support managing memory without GC. They also support sophisticated programming patterns via smart pointers and traits (a construct I was unfamiliar with, but now really like). We provide a simple programming project to familiarize students with the basic and advanced features of Rust. Assessment I enjoyed learning Rust in preparation for teaching it. I had been wanting to learn it since my interview with Aaron Turon some years back. The Rust documentation is first-rate, so that really helped. I also enjoyed seeing connections to my own prior research on the Cyclone programming language. (I recently reflected on Cyclone, and briefly connected it to Rust, in a talk at the ISSISP’18 summer school.) Rust’s ownership relates to Cyclone’s unique/affine pointers, and Rust’s lifetimes relate to Cyclone’s regions. Rust’s smart pointers match patterns we also implemented in Cyclone, e.g., for reference counted pointers. Rust has taken these ideas much further, e.g., a really cool integration with traits handles tricky aspects of polymorphism. The Rust compiler’s error messages are also really impressive! A big challenge in Cyclone was finding a way to program with unique pointers without tearing your hair out. My impression is that Rust programmers face the same challenge (as long as you don’t resort to frequent use of unsafe blocks). Nevertheless, Rust is a much-loved programming language, so the language designers are clearly doing something right! Oftentimes facility is a matter of comfort, and comfort is a matter of education and experience. As such, I think Rust fits into the philosophy of CS 330, which aims to introduce new language concepts that are interesting in and of themselves, and may yet have expanded future relevance. Conclusions We must build software with security in mind from the start. Educating all future programmers about security is an important step toward increasing the security mindset. In CS 330 we illustrate common vulnerability classes and how they can be defended against by the language (e.g., by using those languages, like Rust, that are type safe) and programming patterns (e.g., by validating untrusted input). By doing so, we are hopefully making our students more fully cognizant of the task that awaits them in their future software development jobs. We might also interest them to learn more about security in a subsequent security class. In writing this post, I realize we could do more to illustrate how type abstraction can help with security. For example, abstract types can be used to increase assurance that input data is properly validated, as explained by Google’s Christoph Kern in his 2017 SecDev Keynote. This fact is also a consequence of semantic type safety, as argued well by Derek Dreyer in his POPL’18 Keynote. Good stuff to do for Spring’19 !

[appdevelopmentcompanyinusa]

5 Big Industries that Blockchain could transform for the better

The buzzword and technology trend for 2017 was – BLOCKCHAIN, and it will continue to be so for 2019. An open ledger technology that began with bitcoin and has been around for years seems to have entered mainstream conversation lately. It is basically a global public database/ledger that stores detailed information about every transaction enabling companies to prove the security of their documents by being transparent about who owned the document at any given time, citing proof of the fact that it hasn’t been modified or altered in any way.

This proved to be extremely vital for Bitcoin as it ensured that the same money won’t be spent twice, unless a third-party plunges in. What also makes blockchain further unique is that the ledger isn’t stored on one computer; instead it’s shared across a huge number of computers which allows everyone in the network to have access to it. Because of the reliability and accountability that blockchain entails, it has become a customary element for development of financial technologies today. However, other sectors are recognizing its influence and structural integrity and are keen on imbibing it.

Following are the industries that could be transformed by blockchain technology or have its indelible imprint on their future –

 Banking –

Blockchain can inject enhanced accuracy and information sharing into a structured and complex financial services ecosystem such as a bank by being a digitized and a tamper-proof ledger. Banks are investing the maximum in blockchain startups, for example, R3 CEV, a consortium of global financial institutions collaborating to develop a platform and commercial applications for distributed ledger technology. The platform has been called Corda and it meets the highest standards in the banking industry but will be applicable to any commercial scenario.

This is what blockchain will do for the banking and financial sector –

Fraud Reduction

The potential of blockchain technology to reduce fraud is getting a lot of attention from the financial world because 45% of financial intermediaries suffer from financial crimes every year. Most banking systems are built on centralized databases that are vulnerable to cyberattacks where the hackers only have to breach one system to have full access. The blockchain technology would eliminate some of these crimes.  

Smart Contracts

Blockchains are capable of storing any kind of digital information which can be computer codes as well. These codes can be executed when two or more parties enter their keys enabling smart contracts. Once a set of criteria has been adhered to these codes can be programmed to create contracts or execute financial transactions.

Know Your Customer (KYC)

Financial institutions spend millions to keep up with KYC and customer due diligence regulations annually. Blockchain would allow verification of one client by one organization to be accessed by other organizations so the KYC process wouldn’t have to start from scratch. This would bring down the administrative costs for compliance departments significantly.

Trading Platforms

Operational errors and fraud would be reduced if trading platforms started relying on blockchain technology. NASDAQ and the Australian Securities Exchange are already exploring blockchain solutions to reduce costs and raise efficiencies.

Payments

Blockchain disruption will eliminate many of the existing intermediaries in the payment processing system. This will bring in fortified security and lower costs for banks to process payments between banks, among organizations and their clients.

 Healthcare

Healthcare organizations face the challenge of secure sharing of data across platforms, which is an impediment in the pursuit of delivering cost-effective care. Employing Blockchain technology could allow hospitals, payers, and other parties in the healthcare value chain to share access to their networks without compromising data security.

For example, Tierion, a blockchain startup has built a data storage and verification platform for healthcare. Also, Blockchain Company GEM and Tierion have partnered with Philips Healthcare in the Philips Blockchain Lab.

 Ride Sharing

Taxi apps like Uber, Hailo and Lyft operate as dispatching centers that use algorithms to control their drivers and tariffs. Here, blockchain could introduce a wave of new options where both drivers and users could create a more user-driven and value-based marketplace because of the distributed ledger.

For example, Arcade City, a startup with a ridesharing app for people where users can select their driver, negotiate payment and enjoy personalized service. So, Arcade City is basically functioning in a similar fashion to that of other e-hail taxi apps but allows drivers to set their fares (in place of a corporate) with blockchain recording all transactions. Arcade takes a percentage of the rider fares and helps drivers build their customer base along with providing value based services like deliveries and roadside assistance.

 Retail

Blockchain could change the existing dynamic of the marketplace by decentralizing the trust. For instance in case of Amazon, its success is dependent on its consumers’ sense of trust; here blockchain will attach that trust to sellers than to site themselves.

There are startups that are developing decentralized blockchain utilities to connect buyers and sellers, without a middleman and the related charges. At these utilities customers purchase goods using any of the available crypto currencies, and sellers are paid in Bitcoin with all data distributed across the global network instead of being stored in a central database.

 The Internet of Things (IoT)

Blockchain will prove to be a security fabric for IoT; it will give companies invested in this sector the confidence that their IoT devices won’t be compromised. With the rise of IoT severe issues will surface when millions of devices would want to interact among themselves or their users and with the current IoT ecosystem relying on the server/client paradigm, these challenges will be difficult to meet.

Many tech firms are exploring possibilities of resolving these problems with blockchain technology. They are considering importing its core concept of peer to peer messaging devoid of trust a complete possibility as has been proven in the financial realm through cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. For IoT networks blockchain will allow billions of devices to share the same network without the need for auxiliary resources. IoT will definitely entail blockchain for a future that involves decentralized and autonomous networks.

The power of global blockchain is waiting to be harnessed in innovative ways by companies, and the above is a mere glimpse of it. If you are seeking for any kind of consultation, solution, service based on Blockchain Development, Blockchain Mobile App Development, you can get a free quote at – https://www.consagous.com/contact/

[nuadox]

Data management - Is technology the next utility?

- By Christopher Kunney , Nuadox -

The dictionary defines the word utility as follows: Noun:  “An enterprise concerned with the provision to the public of essentials, such as electricity, gas or water.” It’s safe to say for the majority of businesses primary utilities such as water, electricity and/or gas are essential in supporting the day to day operations of their enterprises.

Limit access to any of these services and most organizations would cease to function effectively.  In the past few decades there has been a revolution in computing and communications, and all signs are that technological progress and use of information technology will continue to accelerate.  I submit there is a case to be made in today’s data driven environment that information systems (i.e. servers, networks, mobile devices, tablets, etc.) and the applications support the business ecosystem have become a vital part of how an organization delivers its products and services.

IT infrastructure: a new reality    

For most companies’ standard utilities such as electricity and water are normal cost of doing business. They don’t think twice about allocating the funds necessary to ensure these services are always available for use. Conversely, many of the same organizations struggle to rationalize the on-going cost needed to ensure its internet, servers, wifi, cell phones, network security and other important parts of their IT infrastructure remain scalable and uninterrupted.

Organizations must accept today’s reality that their IT infrastructure (the new utility) is critical for the dissemination of business intelligence (or informational currency) and is essential to remaining competitive. We must also begin to adopt a more intelligent approach to how to leverage this new utility and the costs associated with maintaining it.. This means not just budgeting for your monthly technology expenses but also ensuring regular system upgrades, hardware refresh, security testing, etc. becomes an essential part of the organization’s life cycle management strategy. This concept is no different than guaranteeing regular maintenance of a building’s plumbing and electrical systems.

Maximizing the efficient use of resources

Investment in the care and feeding of a company’s technology investments should be balanced with an effective strategy for commoditizing its relative cost. When feasible, the goal should always be to redirect company resources in areas which bring greater impact to their bottom line and are clearly aligned with the organization’s core business. Instead of spending limited capital on maintaining data centers facilities, purchasing servers, network security and highly specialized technical staff companies should consider migrating high dollar IT infrastructure to cloud based solutions and begin adopting a utility usage purchasing model (i.e. infrastructure as a service). Like other types of on-demand computing such as grid computing, the utility model seeks to maximize the efficient use of resources while minimizing associated costs.

Approaching technology investments from this perspective allows leadership to acquire computing power based on actual demand.  It also creates opportunities for redirecting capital to other projects and revenue generating investments. Gone are the days of allocating large amounts of capital to IT infrastructure projects whose maximum utilization is rarely realized and at best has a limited life expectancy of typically 3 to 5 years.

In today’s highly competitive business environment it makes sense for companies to begin to view their technology usage like a utility to the business (similar to water and electricity consumption). They should also adopt best practices that will allow them to efficiently manage the anticipated usage.  

Of course, there has been confusion and/or concern by many organizations over the utility model. Primarily because it will require the outsourcing of critical/sensitive areas of their IT operations to third party vendors who in turn, charge back based on capacity or processing demands.  In addition, they are also left to what they believe is the mercy of the vendor to provide them access to their critical business data.  

While this is one approach, it's not the only one enterprises are taking.

Private utility models

In fact, many businesses are adopting to deploy their own internal private utility models which accomplish many of the same goals as traditional outsourcing without giving up the keys to their data kingdom. Bottom line, whether you chose to leverage internal or external services, organizations adopting the utility model as its Information technology management strategy will be best positioned to adapt quickly to their evolving business environment.  

Finally, the cloud is just one aspect of what I like to call the “Data Management Utility Model”.  It’s important to recognize that choosing which vendors to partner with is still very important to organizations making the commitment to this model. There are a plethora of service options, vendors and delivery models to choose from, which makes this road one that organizations should tread carefully down. One size doesn’t fit all and taking a conservative approach in its adoption is a wise strategy to say the least.

A successful adoption for the enterprise incorporates a practical service management strategy, with an effective data management and governance methodology in its implementation. 

Has information services become the next utility?  Not such a far-fetched concept anymore.

Read Also

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[bentonpena]

How a Hacker Launched a Decentralized Network to Track Internet Censorship

How a Hacker Launched a Decentralized Network to Track Internet Censorship https://bit.ly/32yt4Gg

Political and social upheaval around the world can lead to internet censorship and interference by powerful actors.

The Open Observatory of Network Interference (OONI) is allowing people around the world to monitor internet censorship and interference in their countries in a decentralized manner for free.

It has created the world's largest open dataset on internet censorship, with millions of measurements collected from more than 200 countries since 2012.

Belarus residents are fighting back against the alleged illegitimate re-election of leader Alexander Lukashenko, otherwise known as the “last dictator of Europe,” since the election occurred Aug. 9. Lukashenko’s contested victory has led to widespread protests and violence against protestors by the military, and caused Lukashenko’s opponent to flee the country.

Amid the protests, which have been ongoing, various parts of the internet were also shut down across the country including social networks and message sites such as Telegram and Facebook, as well as some news outlets. Lukashenko has denied shutting down the internet, blaming foreign interference, but further reporting suggests the government is, in fact, responsible. 

In a new report shared exclusively with CoinDesk, the decentralized internet censorship testing network Open Observatory of Network Interference (OONI), found 86 websites were blocked in Belarus in August, including 19 communications platforms such as Telegram and encrypted email services. 

“These include news media, political opposition, pro-democracy, and election related websites, as well as communication and circumvention tool sites,” the report found. 

The origins of OONI

OONI has been working as a global community to document internet censorship and interference since 2012. Using a free and open source software it developed called OONI Probe, the organization has built a “decentralized, citizen-led, Internet censorship observatory.” It publishes measurements in order to develop a public archive on network interference and increase transparency about censorship. The data for the Belarus report, for example, was gathered from OONI probe users on the ground in the country. 

With rising authoritarianism around the world, information crackdowns due to COVID-19 and states constantly developing more advanced methods of suppressing information and engaging in censorship, the work OONI and the network using its software are doing has a renewed sense of urgency. 

“A lot of our principles and ideas come from being cypherpunks basically,” said Arturo Filastò, a Rome-based hacker who founded and leads OONI.  “The concept is that we can build tools and technology that empower people to take actions and bring about change. A core concept of that is decentralization and the fact that everybody should be able to use our tool.”

Filastò was a hacker from his teen years. In a recent call with CoinDesk over Signal, he made it clear he espoused the ideas of, and aligned himself with, the cypherpunk mentality. 

The original idea for OONI, which Filastò now describes as more a manifesto than an academic paper, was written while he was still at the Tor Project, which maintains the Tor browser. 

Filastò said OONI definitely doesn’t want to be a central authority declaring how bad internet censorship is around the world. Rather, they want to empower people to document internet abuse wherever they see it. 

“We want to build tools that empower anybody who wants to go out and say, ‘Okay, in my country there’s something wrong with respect to how the internet is being filtered and how it’s being interfered with,’” said Filastò.  

A hard-data approach

The OONI probes focus not on anecdotal evidence but rather on hard, quantitative data. This approach prevents governments from claiming ignorance when they do, in fact, block something. 

As a result, OONI has become the world’s largest open dataset on internet censorship with millions of measurements collected from more than 200 countries since 2012. There are tens of thousands of volunteers using it on the ground in authoritarian states such as Iran, Venezuela and Malaysia, according to Filastò.  

“We intend to apply the scientific method to the realm of network surveillance and filtering detection,” read that initial paper. “In order to ensure reproducibility, all experiments conducted shall be properly documented and all data collected made available to the public in a timely manner. The same observations should be possible to reproduce independently, in line with standard full disclosure practice.”

How OONI’s tech works

The OONI probe runs a number of preprogrammed tests on the network. A user can decide which ones to run and how extensive they can be. Sometimes a single test can take hours, but tests can also be broken down among a network of users in a country to be run faster. Alternatively multiple devices could be set up to run them.  

The OONI probe can test a wide array of factors. 

In Belarus, blocking by internet service providers appeared to be implemented during the TLS handshake, which OONI attributes to either Deep Packet Inspection (DPI), an advanced method of tracking and managing traffic on a network, or that all traffic was going through a “proxy that blocks undesired connections,” according to the report. 

The Server Name Indication (SNI) is seemingly being used to decide whether to block or let connections go through, according to OONI. The SNI is the method through which you’re able to make sure you end up on the proper domain by allowing you to specify it during the TLS handshake, or when a client (your device) and a server acknowledge and verify each other before establishing a connection. 

It’s not just things like political or media sites that are blocked. Connections to things like virtual privacy networks (VPN) or encrypted email are also often disrupted, as these are the very tools that can be used to circumvent government censorship. Numerous proxies for the encrypted messaging app Telegram served as an organization and communication platform amid the ongoing protests in Belarus, particularly as other parts of the web were shut down. A number of privacy-preserving email providers were also blocked. 

A global effort

OONI has a global testing website list, and country-specific lists in collaboration with Citizen Lab, a research group from the University of Toronto that studies the intersection of information and communication technologies, human rights, and global security, as well as other projects to develop metric measurements. 

The tests are run on the users network and the control to check it is run on an OONI server in a location known not to be facing censorship. Users can also choose what websites, or categories of websites they don’t want to test if they so choose. Filastò said OONI is dedicated to informed consent, and lets users really shape tests how they see fit. 

At a high level, Filastò said when it comes to websites, users test DNS resolution and compare for consistency. A DNS (Domain Name Server) resolution is the system by which an IP address is translated to domain names.

“This is a huge rabbit hole; it’s not so trivial as just matching IP addresses because of geolocation, timing, load balancing and a lot of other things,” said Filastò. “I won’t go into details, but the basic tactic is a DNS resolution and then check for consistency.”

This helps determine whether they’re consistently reachable or unreachable because tests also want to eliminate the cases in which there are false positives due to the website being down for reasons other than interference or manipulation. 

Censorship on the ground in Malaysia

Khairil Yusof is the coordinator for the Sinar Project in Malaysia, which started out as a volunteer effort with a few tech activists who were at the Bersih 2.0 pro-democracy rally in 2011. The group’s focus was on open government and civic tech, but under an increasingly authoritarian government they also needed to pay attention to the possibility of online censorship.

They started seeing instances of censorship prior to Malaysia’s 2013 general election, and since then it’s only continued. As part of their efforts, Yusof said, they tried to build a monitoring site backed by data and tests. 

“We ran into problems, and that’s when we discovered that OONI was also working on the same idea and at a global scale,” said Yusof. “It was an open project [that] had done much more research into this, and we were like, ‘Great, let’s work with them and then shift our efforts to working with OONI and the OONI community.’”

Many censorship reports in the media are anecdotal, said Yusof. These anecdotal reports are then used to generate various “Internet Freedom” indices. The problem with anecdotal evidence is that it’s easy to brush off or dismiss by saying, for example, a person’s internet was slow or the site was probably down. The purpose of the Sinar Project is to verify and support anecdotal claims with hard evidence that cannot be refuted. 

The project focuses both on long-term data collection to track trends as well as on real-time data collection during key events like general elections. 

“Our testing efforts, for example, allowed us to prove that election results sites were being blocked, and which was later used by journalists to track down the official [government] request to ISPs leading to the resignation of a few people at the Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC),” said Yusof. 

Yusof noted he hasn’t seen any rise in censorship since the onset of the global pandemic but says sometimes, when the technical challenges of censorship are too high, Malaysia is resorting to more “analog” methods of silencing people, such as throwing them into prison. 

“Mostly when the technical and economic costs of online censorship are too high, what we’ve seen in Southeast Asia is that offline actions such as arrests and jailing of activists or media for comments or reporting online has far more chilling effects on self-censorship than technical measures,” said Yusof.

Phishing in Venezuela

When Juan Guaido formed an interim legislative administration in Venezuela, he and his party were challenged by incumbent president Nicolás Maduro and labeled the “opposition party.” (Guaido is recognized as Venezuela’s legitimate leader by more than 50 countries.)

Health care is a state-run industry in Venezuela. The “Héroes de la Salud” platform was created in 2020 by Guaido’s disputed interim administration so that members of the public health-care system could share their information on its website and receive monthly financial assistance at a time of difficult working conditions and low wages.

However, visitors to the site were being inadvertently redirected by a state-run ISP to a different one: a phishing site cloned from the original ““Héroes de la Salud” by malicious actors opposed to Guaido, according to a late April report from Venezuela Inteligente, an organization that tracks network interference and censorship on the internet in Venezuela. 

The users were rerouted through a domain name system (DNS) redirect, which is an attack that shows a web page to a user that is different from the one requested. 

The phishing site was gathering personal information (including the Venezuelan equivalent of U.S. Social Security numbers) of public health workers, who could then face backlash if they were known to have asked for financial assistance from the “opposition.” 

“These were public health workers redirected to a website designed with the sole purpose of tricking them and collecting their data,” said head of Venezuela Inteligente Andres E. Azpurua. “I don’t have any specifics on what has happened to some of those people. But we do know that that data was collected and published online. So there��s a list of highly sensitive information that’s just out there.”

Using OONI’s software, Azpurua was able to help document the discovery in a standardized and open fashion. 

Going forward, OONI is hoping to continue to expand its network and build on the progress it has seen since 2012. 

“Our real goal is empowering decentralized efforts of uncovering network interference around the world,” said Filastò. “That’s really what we strive for at the end of the day.”

Trading via CoinDesk https://bit.ly/35KxIA1 September 15, 2020 at 04:32PM