Wednesday 1 August 2018

Interesting Reads – 2018-08-01



Interesting Reads – 2018-08-01

Contents

Articles

  • Microsoft bangs the 'devices as a service' drum ahead of Windows 7's end-of-support deadline
  • From AT&T To Xerox: 73 Corporate Innovation Labs
  • Hit or myth? Understanding the true costs and impact of cybersecurity programs
  • Life before Google: What was it like?
  • A Dozen Things I’ve Learned from Andy Grove about Business and Strategy
  • Quantum computing 101
  • Informatics for information professionals
  • An Introduction to LIDAR: The Key Self-Driving Car Sensor
  • After Leaking TRAI Chairman's Personal Details, Hackers Deposited Re 1 in His Account
  • I Helped Popularize The Term “Fake News” And Now I Cringe Every Time I Hear It

Events / Announcements

  • eWIT: Panel Discussion on “Top Skills Needed for Digital Transformation”
  • SPIN Chennai: Workshop on CMMI V2.0 Demystified
  • IEEE-SA 2018 World Standards Day Video Contest
  • Atal Innovation Mission, NITI Aayog & MyGov launches “Innovate India Platform”
  • Call for Papers: CONFLUENCE-2019, 9th International Conference on Cloud Computing, Data Science & Engineering

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Articles

Microsoft bangs the 'devices as a service' drum ahead of Windows 7's end-of-support deadline

It just might be a perfect storm. January 14, 2020 is the last day Microsoft will provide security updates for Windows 7. According to Microsoft's estimates, there are 184 million commercial devices out there (as of April 2018 and excluding China) still on Windows 7. And 64 percent of those devices are more than five years old. Microsoft is advising partners to go after migration opportunities using the DaaS approach.


Related story:  With DaaS Windows coming, say goodbye to your PC as you know it: How much are you going to like having Microsoft in charge of your desktop?

From AT&T To Xerox: 73 Corporate Innovation Labs

Innovation is critical for established companies to stay relevant in the face of disruption. Here's our list of corporate innovation labs.

Corporate innovation is critical for established companies looking to stay relevant in the face of disruption from up-and-coming start-ups. With industries being unbundled left and right (supermarkets, banking, cars — just to name a few) more companies are opening up in-house innovation labs every day.

Sometimes corporate innovation goes wrong, and we’ve written about corporate innovation theater before. Now here’s our list of innovation labs, both newly formed and well established, working to turn new ideas into new opportunities at long-lived companies.


Hit or myth? Understanding the true costs and impact of cybersecurity programs

Cybersecurity is a critical but often misunderstood aspect of companies’ technology infrastructures. Here’s how business and technology leaders can ensure that important corporate assets remain safe.

Companies are using all kinds of sophisticated technologies and techniques to protect critical business assets. But the most important factor in any cybersecurity program is trust. It undergirds all the decisions executives make about tools, talent, and processes. Based on our observations, however, trust is generally lacking in many organizations’ cybersecurity initiatives—in part, because of competing agendas. Senior business leaders and the board may see cybersecurity as a priority only when an intrusion occurs, for instance, while the chief security officer and his team view security as an everyday priority, as even the most routine website transactions present potential holes to be exploited.

This lack of trust gives rise to common myths about cybersecurity—for instance, about the types of threats that are most relevant, the amount of spending required to protect critical data, and even about which data sets are most at risk. Perceptions become facts, trust erodes further, and cybersecurity programs end up being less successful than they could be. If incidence of breaches has been light, for instance, business leaders may tighten the reins on the cybersecurity budget until the CIO or other cybersecurity leaders prove the need for further investment in controls—perhaps opening themselves up to attack. Conversely, if threats have been documented frequently, business leaders may reflexively decide to overspend on new technologies without understanding that there are other, nontechnical remedies to keep data and other corporate assets safe.

In our experience, when there is greater transparency about companies’ cybersecurity programs, and trust among the various stakeholders, companies reap significant benefits. Businesses can make better decisions about their security priorities and response plans, as well as the training and investments required to hold attackers at bay. In this article, we explore four common myths executives tend to believe about cybersecurity, and we suggest joint actions business and IT executives can take to create more transparency and understanding company-wide about the technologies and processes that are most effective for protecting critical business information.


Life before Google: What was it like?

Is it OK to turn my cat vegan? What's that fresh smell that babies have? What is love?*

In the 20 years since it was founded, Google has provided answers to the most random queries, become a verb and, on recently having received a record $5bn fine after giving itself a bit too much of an edge over its rivals.

Some jobs with an emphasis on research have been altered in major ways by its invention, to the extent that it's hard to imagine how those jobs were once done.


A Dozen Things I’ve Learned from Andy Grove about Business and Strategy

“Andrew S. Grove was born in Budapest, Hungary in 1936. He graduated from the City College of New York in 1960 with a Bachelor of Chemical Engineering degree and received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley in 1963. Upon graduation, he joined the Research and Development Laboratory of Fairchild Semiconductor and became Assistant Director of Research and Development in 1967. In July 1968, Grove participated in the founding of Intel Corporation. In 1979 he was named President, and in 1987 Chief Executive Officer.”

1. “Success breeds complacency. Complacency breeds failure. Only the paranoid survive.” “I believe in the value of paranoia. Business success contains the seeds of its own destruction. The more successful you are, the more people want a chunk of your business and then another chunk and then another until there is nothing left.”

2. “Technological change is going to reach out and sooner or later change something fundamental in your business world.”


Quantum computing 101

Although quantum information has been around for a long time, we're starting to see more about it in the media. We hope to give you a quick start guide on:

  • What is quantum computing?
  • Superposition and entanglement
  • Why do quantum effects matter?
  • What can a quantum computer do that a classical computer can't?
  • But I don't want to factor very large numbers
  • A quantum computer can hack into my private data?
  • How can quantum mechanics create ultra-secret keys?
  • What else can we do with quantum mechanics?
  • Where can I get a quantum computer?
  • What is required to build a quantum computer?
  • When will there be a real quantum computer?
  • Is quantum technology still years away?


Informatics for information professionals

Are you a librarian or other information professional (or soon-to-be) who’s comfortable with numbers? If so, you might want to take a serious look at the growing career path of informatics.

Although it’s already become a key driver in the medical and healthcare industries, the use of informatics is now also providing decision support in law firms, libraries, corporations, government agencies, and pretty much any organization able to gather and make use of data.

In fact, notes Brad Rogers, LibGig Director of Recruiting, “An increasing number of employers are looking for informatics and other data-analytics skills across all industry verticals as companies rely more on data for decision support.”

An Introduction to LIDAR: The Key Self-Driving Car Sensor

At Voyage we recently shared the news of Homer, our first self-driving taxi. Homer is outfitted with a whole range of sensors to aid in understanding and navigating the world, key to which is LIDAR (short for light detection and ranging). In this post you’ll learn more about LIDAR, its origins in the self-driving car space, and how it stacks against other sensors. Enjoy!

LIDAR enables a self-driving car (or any robot) to observe the world with a few special super powers:

  • Continuous 360 degrees of visibility – Imagine if your human eyes allowed you to see in all directions all of the time
  • Insanely accurate depth information – Imagine if, instead of guessing, you could always know the precise distance (to an accuracy of ±2cm) of objects in relation to you


After Leaking TRAI Chairman's Personal Details, Hackers Deposited Re 1 in His Account

On recently, RS Sharma decided to post his Aadhaar number on Twitter, challenging critics to show “one concrete example where you can do any harm to me (Sharma)”, prompting ethical hackers to leak his personal details on Twitter.


I Helped Popularize The Term “Fake News” And Now I Cringe Every Time I Hear It

After a yearlong battle for its meaning and ownership, “fake news” is now both an empty slogan and a deeply troubling warning sign.

In October 2014 I (Craig Silverman, BuzzFeed News Media Editor & the author of this post) came across a false story that was quickly racking up likes, shares, and comments on Facebook. The article, published on nationalreport.net, claimed an entire town in Texas was quarantined after a family contracted Ebola, and it used a fake quote attributed to someone at a Texas hospital to pass itself off as a real news story. I warned people about what I was seeing:


Events / Announcements

eWIT: Panel Discussion on “Top Skills Needed for Digital Transformation”

eWIT invites you to a Panel Discussion on “Top Skills Needed for Digital Transformation”
on Thursday, 2nd August 2018 from 4 pm to 6.15 pm at GAVs Technologies, No: 11, Old Mahabalipuram Road, Sholinganallur, Chennai – 600119.

The Panellists include:
Mr. Srinivasan Sundararajan, Technology Advisor, GAVS Technologies Pvt Ltd
Mr. Sunil David, Regional Director ( IOT ), AT&T India
Mr. Aravindan Chandrasekaran, Director, Sutherland Global

Moderator: Ms. Bhanurekha C, Vice President, eWIT


SPIN Chennai: Workshop on CMMI V2.0 Demystified

Join the workshop on CMMI V2.0 Demystified with Rajamanickam - CMMI Lead Appraiser, Infocareer Pvt Ltd on Saturday, 25th August 2018 from 9.30 am to 1.00 pm.  

This is going to be a 3.5 hours workshop where Raja explains how CMMI V2.0 is different from its earlier version; while demystifying how CMMI V2.0 is aligned with Agile and DevOps enterprises. 

SPIN members – Register here – https://goo.gl/YDTLhg

Non members register here (only this session) Rs. 300/-  https://in.explara.com/e/cmmi-v2-0-demystified

IEEE-SA 2018 World Standards Day Video Contest

IEEE-SA is seeking short (15-60 seconds) videos that explore how standards support the emerging technologies that are beginning to impact our lives today and into the future. As part of its 2018 celebration of WSD and its theme of “International Standards and the 4th Industrial Revolution,” IEEE-SA is looking for creative, original, quality videos that are relevant to this year’s WSD theme and that demonstrate how IEEE standards address the blending of our physical, digital, and biological worlds. For example, artificial intelligence and robots are starting to drive the decision processes of our lives, autonomous cars are being tested on our highways, and smart systems are linking our lives in surprising ways. 

Based on the video submissions, IEEE-SA will select up to three videos to receive a USD $500 prize. Entries are due by 14 September.

Contest criteria:

  • Each entrant must complete the contest submission form
  • Each submission must include self-identification, including a legitimate email address and legal name
  • Videos should include references to IEEE standards related to emerging and converging technologies
  • Videos must either be an uploaded MP4 file or a link to a video placed on YouTube
  • IEEE membership not required to participate
  • Contest end date: 14 September 2017


Atal Innovation Mission, NITI Aayog & MyGov launches “Innovate India Platform”

Shri. R Ramanan, Mission Director, Atal Innovation Mission and Shri.Arvind Gupta CEO, MyGov today launched the “#InnovateIndia Platform”, a collaboration between the Atal Innovation Mission and MyGov, a citizen centric platform of the Government of India. The #InnovateIndia portal will serve as the common point for all the innovation happening across the nation.

Launching the platform, Mission Director, Atal Innovation Mission said that the #InnovateIndia MyGov-AIM portal creates the much-needed innovations platform for registering both grassroots and deep-tech innovators at a national level. Those searching for a critical innovation can leverage the portal advantageously for the benefit of the economy as well as national social needs.”

Some of the features of this platform are:

  • The platform is open to all Indian citizens
  • The users can View, comment, share, and rate the innovations crowdsourced on the #InnovateIndia platform
  • View the leaderboard which is calculated based on the votes on each innovation.
  • Citizens can share their/organizations/someone else’s innovation on the platform by login to the MyGov website
  • These innovations can also be shared on various social media platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook, and Twitter

“India has been a very innovation-orientedsociety, but our challenge has been a structured approach to innovation, capturing them and building an ecosystem to take them global. The current government initiative to capture and support innovation from ground up, is aimed at creating a structured ecosystem to encourage, enhance and develop India’s innovative character”, said Shri Arvind Gupta, CEO MyGov.

With the launch of the platform Indians will be able to upload and rate their/organizations innovation on the platform. The citizens can access the platform on https://innovate.mygov.in/innovateindia/

Call for Papers: CONFLUENCE-2019, 9th International Conference on Cloud Computing, Data Science & Engineering

CONFLUENCE-2019, 9th International Conference on Cloud Computing, Data Science & Engineering  technically Co-Sponsored by IEEE UP SECTION will be held on  10th and 11th  January 2019 at Amity School of Engineering and Technology , Amity University Uttar Pradesh, Noida , India. Paper Submission Deadline : 31st August 2018. Conference website: http://amity.edu/aset/confluence2019/index.html


Feedback
We will be pleased to have your feedback on the “Interesting Reads” being sent once in five days.  Pl. share the links of any interesting things you come across so that we can include them in these email posts.  Also, pl. share the email ids of your colleagues, friends, peers and contacts, if you want them to be included in the google group to get regular posts.  

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With regards
HR Mohan