Tuesday 26 June 2018

Interesting Reads – 2018-06-26



Interesting Reads – 2018-06-26

This AI program could beat you in an argument—but it doesn’t know what it’s saying

The latest human-versus-machine matchup involves an argumentative AI system. uring a live debate in San Francisco this evening, an AI program made a surprisingly cogent argument that space exploration should be subsidized. When a human disagreed, the program offered a rebuttal. The debate, between an IBM computer program called Project Debater and several human participants, is the latest proof that artificially intelligent machines are making progress at skills that previously were reserved for people—in this case, arguing.


The Human Factor In An AI Future

As artificial intelligence becomes more sophisticated and its ability to perform human tasks accelerates exponentially, we’re finally seeing some attempts to wrestle with what that means, not just for business, but for humanity as a whole.

From the first stone ax to the printing press to the latest ERP solution, technology that reduces or even eliminates physical and mental effort is as old as the human race itself. However, that doesn’t make each step forward any less uncomfortable for the people whose work is directly affected – and the rise of AI is qualitatively different from past developments.

Until now, we developed technology to handle specific routine tasks. A human needed to break down complex processes into their component tasks, determine how to automate each of those tasks, and finally create and refine the automation process. AI is different. Because AI can evaluate, select, act, and learn from its actions, it can be independent and self-sustaining.


Digital resilience: Seven practices in cybersecurity

Cyberattacks are costly, and they appear to be broadening in scope. Until recently, financial companies and governments were the primary targets of cybercrime. No more. The WannaCry and NotPetya ransomware attacks of 2017 affected companies in a wide range of industries. Earlier this year, the discovery of the Meltdown and Spectre vulnerabilities on computer chips showed that cyber risks occur not just in software but in hardware, too. All of these factors point to the reality that a growing range of companies will need to do much more to protect themselves.

In a recent global survey by McKinsey, 75 percent of executives said they consider cybersecurity a top priority. Yet only 16 percent said their companies are well prepared to withstand cyber risks. Merely spending more is unlikely to help. McKinsey research on 45 Fortune 500 companies found a weak relationship between how much they spend on cybersecurity as a proportion of their overall spending on IT, and how sophisticated their programs are.

What does a robust cybersecurity program look like? Our experience suggests that leading companies are working toward a state of digital resilience, in which they design their business processes and their information-technology systems to facilitate the protection of critical information and to implement strong cyberdefenses and effective plans for responding to cyberattacks. The following seven practices are essential to achieving digital resilience:


Social media helps senior citizens keep in touch with family, but prolonged use leads to isolation: Report

The impact of social media on the youth has been measured time and again, but a new study by HelpAge India analyses how access to internet affects the elderly. To compile ‘ Elder Abuse in India - 2018’, the organisation collected data from 23 cities resulting in a culmination of 5,014 respondents.

They’ve specifically studied the impact of technology and social media across different parameters. Understanding how and why the elderly come online helps form a picture about the impact the Internet has on their world.


How playing video games affects your body and brain

Video games are by many measures one of the most popular and commonly enjoyed forms of entertainment of our time, yet there's a lot of controversy around them.

In the wake of tragic events like the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, political figures like President Donald Trump have declared they want to investigate links between video games and violence.

"I'm hearing more and more people say the level of violence on video games is really shaping young people's thoughts," Trump said after the Parkland shooting.
President Obama had similar questions after the Sandy Hook school shooting in Newton, Connecticut.

"Congress will fund research into the effects that violent video games have on young minds," he said at the time, also calling for policies that would ban the purchase of military-style weapons and improve background checks for firearm purchases (changes that could have an impact on gun violence).

Even the World Health Organization has considered adding "gaming disorder" to a list of mental health conditions, stating that problematic gaming behavior might cause problems in other areas of people's lives.

But many other people have pointed out that some types of games offer benefits, including the potential to improve people's ability to pay attention and process visual information.

For all of these reasons, people have lots of questions surrounding what science says about the effects of video games. Do games cause violence or aggression? Are they addictive? Are they healthy ways to relax and de-stress? Could they improve brain processing speed?

Similar questions have arisen after every new form of media appeared - including television, movies, pop music, comics, and even books.

Fortunately, there's a fair amount of research that about how video games affect our brains and bodies. Here are the most important takeaways.


More than a feeling: Ten design practices to deliver business value

While the concept of “design thinking” emerged as far back as 1969, and while many companies have tried to adopt its principles, relatively few have made true shifts in growth and profitability through design. Fewer still have been able to prove concretely the exact value of the design actions they’ve taken. As design thinking nears its 50th birthday, many companies still struggle to realize value from design. Those that succeed often follow ten best practices.


Big Trouble At 3nm

As chipmakers begin to ramp up 10nm/7nm technologies in the market, vendors are also gearing up for the development of a next-generation transistor type at 3nm.

Some have announced specific plans at 3nm, but the transition to this node is expected to be a long and bumpy one, filled with a slew of technical and cost challenges. For example, the design cost for a 3nm chip could exceed an eye-popping $1 billion. In addition, there are also several uncertainties at 3nm that could change everything overnight.

That hasn’t sidelined anyone yet, however. Samsung and GlobalFoundries separately announced plans to develop a new transistor technology called a nanosheet FET, with so-called variable widths at 3nm. Samsung, for one, hopes to deliver a PDK (version .01) by 2019, with plans to move into production by 2021. Meanwhile, TSMC is exploring nanosheet FETs and a related technology, nanowire FETs, at 3nm, but it has not announced its final plans. Intel, meanwhile, isn’t talking about its plans.


Making India carbon-neutral

When Thomas Isaac, Kerala’s Finance Minister, returned to India after attending the United Nations Climate Change conference in Paris, he wanted to ensure Indian cities were on par with international sustainability standards. Just months later, the Carbon Neutral Wayanad project was launched in the Meenangadi village of Kerala’s Wayanad district. From the conservation of traditional crop varieties and water bodies to banning plastic and reducing the use of soaps and detergents which contain chemicals, the intensive government-backed pilot project is aggressively working towards slashing greenhouse gas emissions in the region.

While this is a great example of what Indian cities ought to be doing, unfortunately the initiative to make our cities ‘carbon-neutral’ remains limited to Meenangadi and certain states such as Sikkim and Maharashtra where plastic has been banned. What we need is a multi-pronged approach, as highlighted in a new report from the Coalition for Urban Transitions, a special initiative of the international New Climate Economy, a global commission on economy and climate.

Experts at the University of Leeds, who drafted the report, assessed over 700 global studies and focussed on three sectors: energy efficiency in buildings, low-carbon transport, and sustainable waste management. Apart from highlighting the massive financial, social and health benefits of investing in low-carbon cities, it also looks into ways of achieving the status.


3D Printing: What You Need to Know

3D printers are finally becoming affordable enough to hit the mainstream, but should you buy one? Here's what to consider before you dive in.

They're not your granddad's daisy wheel printer, or your mom's dot matrix. In fact, they bear little resemblance to today's document or photo printers, which can only print in boring old two dimensions. As their name suggests, 3D printers can build three-dimensional objects, out of a variety of materials. They're going mainstream, showing up at retailers such as Staples, Best Buy, and Home Depot, and you can buy numerous 3D printers and their supplies on Amazon.com and through other online outlets. Though still mostly found on shop floors or in design studios, in schools and community centers, and in the hands of hobbyists, 3D printers are increasingly being found on workbenches, in rec rooms, and kitchens—and perhaps in a home near you, if not your own.


From Theni to San Jose: How Raja Vijayaraman's Calzy won an Apple design award at WWDC 2018

It’s not very often that someone from Theni, in Tamil Nadu, makes their first trip to the US and it is to attend Apple’s hallowed World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC) in San Jose. But here he was, Raja Vijayaraman, the brains behind WapleStuff and creator of Calzy, an innovative iOS app that won the Apple Design of the year at this year’s WWDC.

Not only does Vijayaraman get plaudits from a conference attended by global media, but he also makes connections with some of the best developers in the world, apart from taking home an iMac Pro, an iPhone X, an iPad Pro, MacBook Pro, AirPods and an Apple Watch Series 3 cellular.

But WWDC isn’t where his story begins, in fact, it’s only a key inflexion point in his career. He has a typical Indian rags to riches fairytale with him, starting out his humble beginnings in the city of Theni, studying engineering in Chennai’s Bharat Engineering College and ending up as a VFX designer on Southern Indian superstar Rajinikanth's science fiction fantasy Robot, back in 2010.

“After 12th (finishing high school), I took up mechanical engineering in Chennai at Bharat Engineering College. But when I was studying there, like most Indians, I realised this is not the thing I wanted to do. Meanwhile, I watched the Matrix movie and then I fell in love with it. So, I got into a three month animation course and became a VFX artist, and then I worked in movies like Robot and a couple of other movies,” he told PCMag India on the sidelines of WWDC 2018 in San Jose.


5 ways to connect to free WiFi in India

4G maybe India’s game right now but there’s no denying the freedom that Wi-Fi brings. Giving your data plans a rest from some free web surfing or even for that last minute recharge before your data connection runs out, public WiFi does have it’s uses. A word of caution though, this is public WiFi we are talking about, so make sure you have all the security stuff figured out before we do this. Okay?

Now, here are five ways to find free WiFi hotspots in India:


HRD ministry tightens rules against plagiarism, guilty can lose registration, job

The human resource development ministry has signed off on the University Grants Commission’s (UGC) rules regarding plagiarism, which say that student researchers who are guilty of plagiarism could lose their registration and teachers, their jobs, and will likely notify these on Monday, according to a senior official.

The move is part of the ministry’s effort to improve the quality of education and research in universities and institutes of higher learning; it recently made PhDs mandatory for teaching at the university level starting 2021. The plagiarism regulation will ensure that research is free of plagiarism, which is rampant in Indian universities.


19 ways to slowly destroy your career

There are big mistakes that can instantly ruin your reputation at work or even get you fired. But more commonly, it’s the gradual accumulation of smaller offenses that keeps employees from getting ahead in their careers.

Bad habits, such as giving curt responses to emails or keeping to yourself all day, could be hurting  your reputation — whether you realize it or not.

Here are 19 bad behaviours that will slowly erode your credibility and cost you in the end.


Programming for all Initiative:

We have taken pains to get programming to your doorsteps for the young and the young at heart and for the less-computer-literate to I-wanna-be-a-hacker. The course is filled with fun ways of learning programming from 0th level. We illustrate 20+ cool and great ideas in computing which will make you fall in love with what is termed the 21st century art. Absolutely no pre-requisites are assumed and absolutely no over-the-head talking. It’s fun and only fun, period.

This teaser is how the entire course goes.


Please forward this to your friends and relatives. 

Registrations are on the NPTEL website - free of cost. Course is starting from 15th July 2018

Forthcoming Events

WORTICS 2018 – National Workshop on Technology Trends in Cyber Security 2018 is being held during 29-30 Jun 2018 at Society for Electronic Transactions and Security (SETS) Chennai.

Pl. find he pdf brochure at

Pl. find the pdf regn form at

Short Term Practical Training Programme on PLC, SCADA, Industrial Automation and Control (Hands on Training) is being held during 5-7 Jul 2018 at IIITDM Kancheepuram



International Conf. on Robotics and Smart Manufacturing (RoSMa2018) is being held during 19-21 Jul 2018  at IIITDM Kancheepuram


NPTEL: Enrolment for the July to Dec 2018 semester is open now. 270 courses will be available for certification this semester.


IEEE WIE International Leadership Summit 2018 is being held at Kochi during 7-8 Sep 2018 on the theme “emPOWERing TOgetHER”


INDICON 2018

The 15th IEEE India Council International Conference (INDICON 2018), being organized by the IEEE Madras Section during December 15-18, 2018, at Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Coimbatore, with technical support from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras.