Articles
The History That Leads to Windows 11
Microsoft has been building operating systems since the 1970s, and some have been more successful than others.
On June 24, 2021, Microsoft announced a new iteration of its wildly popular Windows operating system called Windows 11. Windows 11 will include Android apps, which are commonly found on Chromebooks, and the operating system will be installed on new PCs by the 2021 holiday season.
In this article, we're going to take a look at 60 years of computer operating systems. An operating system (OS) is software that manages a computer's hardware and software. It handles memory allocation, schedules tasks, performs time-sharing operations, and administers data storage and printing. Besides computers, operating systems are found on smartphones, video game consoles, web servers, and supercomputers.
https://interestingengineering.com/the-history-that-leads-to-windows-11
Microsoft introducing a new era of hybrid personal computing: the Windows 365 Cloud PC
Windows 365 is a cloud service that introduces a new way to experience Windows 10 or Windows 11 (when it’s generally available later this calendar year) for workers from interns and contractors to software developers and industrial designers. Windows 365 takes the operating system to the Microsoft Cloud, securely streaming the full Windows experience—including all your apps, data, and settings—to your personal or corporate devices. This approach creates a fully new personal computing category, specifically for the hybrid world: the Cloud PC.
Microsoft just blew up the only reason you can't use a Linux desktop
For almost 30 years, the number one reason Windows users have given for not running Linux is they couldn't run their programs on it. Now that Windows 365 Cloud PC is almost here that excuse has just been blown to bits.
https://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-just-blew-up-the-only-reason-you-cant-use-a-linux-desktop/
IEEE Computer Society: 75 Years of Astonishing Evolution of IT: 1946–2021
In 1946, the American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE) established a Committee on Large-Scale Computing. In 1951, the Institute of Radio Engineers (IRE) established a Professional Group on Electronic Computers. In 1963, these societies merged to form the IEEE, and they combined their computing activities into a Computer Group. Finally, in 1970, the Computer Group became the Computer Society. In celebration of the 75th anniversary of the IEEE's computing activities, this article will highlight 75 Years of information technology (IT) by calling out mileposts every 25 (or so) years along the ever-changing journey of IT and the Computer Society (see Table 1). To begin, I will look ten years earlier (1936) at the creation of computer theory. Then, the first 25 years will focus on the creation of computers (1946), the next 25 years on the extraordinary development of computers (1971), and the recent 25 years on computer networking (1996). It will be seen that almost all of the enabling hardware was developed by and for the telephone system, but, not surprisingly, the software was developed for computers. Finally, I will predict that the next 25 years starting now in 2021 will focus on artificial intelligence and data.
https://www.computer.org/csdl/magazine/it/2021/03/09464116/1uHcno7R0He
Japan Has Shattered the Internet Speed Record at 319 Terabits per Second
Engineers in Japan just shattered the world record for the fastest internet speed, achieving a data transmission rate of 319 Terabits per second (Tb/s), according to a paper presented at the International Conference on Optical Fiber Communications in June. The new record was made on a line of fibers more than 1,864 miles (3,000 km) long. And, crucially, it is compatible with modern-day cable infrastructure.
This could literally change everything.
We can't stress enough how fast this transmission speed is. It's nearly double the previous record of 178 Tb/s, which was set in 2020. And it's seven times the speed of the earlier record of 44.2 Tb/s, set with an experimental photonic chip. NASA itself uses a comparatively primitive speed of 400 Gb/s, and the new record soars impossibly high above what ordinary consumers can use (the fastest of which maxes out at 10 Gb/s for home internet connections).
https://interestingengineering.com/japan-shattered-internet-speed-record-319-terabits
Education in 2030: The $10 Trillion dollar question.
The global education market is set to reach at least $10T by 2030 as population growth in developing markets fuels a massive expansion and technology drives unprecedented re-skilling and up-skilling in developed economies. The next decade will see an additional 350 million post secondary graduates and nearly 800 million more K12 graduates than today. Asia and Africa are the driving force behind the expansion. The world needs to add 1.5 million teachers per year on average, approaching 100 million in total in order to keep pace with the unprecedented changes ahead in education around the world.
Education in 2030 is a free 60 page report that deep dives through the four drivers of the global expansion in education and identifies 5 Scenarios for the Future of Learning and Talent. Methodology for developing the scenarios is explained and over 100 charts and tables are provided with sources and references for further research.
What the edX Acquisition Means for the Future of Higher Education
Tech company 2U recently announced an agreement to buy edX’s assets from Harvard and MIT for $800 million. How will this transform the business of education, and how can traditional learning institutions adapt?
What can universities and colleges do? First and foremost, they must look to the future and identify which of the following three strategies they want to pursue.
21 Sustainability Innovations That Might Just Change the World
There's never been a greater push for sustainable products and technologies than there is today. We've reached a critical point with regards to climate change, and many innovators and businesses are stepping up to the plate to build a greener future. Here are just some of the incredible examples of sustainable innovation that could change the world as we know it, and pave the way for a more sustainable way of living.
https://interestingengineering.com/21-sustainability-innovations-that-might-just-change-the-world
Did COVID-19 Leak From a Lab? It's Complicated
The virus’s origins are still unclear, and credible voices are calling for a serious discussion of a lab leak.
As the number of credible scientific and political figures highlighting the need to seriously examine the possibility has grown in recent months, it’s clear that ignoring the theory would be both intellectually dishonest and ethically irresponsible.
https://interestingengineering.com/did-covid-19-leak-from-a-lab-its-complicated
How to master a remote PhD
Gene-editing researcher Satheesh Kumar, who has been unable to travel to Australia to start his PhD, has found ways to be productive without ever visiting his supervisor or lab. At home with his parents in Singapore, he has found some silver linings to his predicament: saving money, putting time into planning and completing coursework requirements.
A student offered PhD in Jun 2020 is yet to see his supervisor in person, but believes to have managed a productive PhD journey thus far including publishing a paper.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02001-y
‘Leetspeak’ 101: What Exactly Is It?
"Leetspeak", otherwise known as "1337", "133t", "eleet", or just simply "leet" is an informal method of spelling used primarily on the internet. It often comprises the replacement of letters in words with other characters, like numbers, that ostensibly resemble the original letters in such a way that they are still legible by human readers.
Depending on the online community in which it is used, "leetspeak" can also take on its own dialect or linguistic varieties, too.
You are probably familiar with it in some form or another, with commonly used examples including "n00b" (noob or newbie), "hax0r" (hacker), etc. More advanced examples of "leetspeak" often omit all English characters completely, leaving the resulting text illegible to anyone not knowledgeable about the subject.
https://interestingengineering.com/leetspeak-101-what-exactly-is-it
Crunch time: innovations in data centre technology
Data centres – the engines of our digital economy – are pushing up against the limits of existing technology. Jon Excell looks at some of the technology innovations that will help them keep up with our insatiable demand for information
https://www.theengineer.co.uk/data-centres-innovations-technology/
Review these 9 low-code use cases and industry examples
The classic example of a low-code use case is to help non-professional or "citizen" developers build simple applications, such as a business analytics dashboard. But low-code development techniques can help professional developers be more efficient with larger tasks, such as legacy applications or back-end integrations.
Here's a look at some use cases where enterprise development teams may benefit from incorporating low-code tools or processes into their workflows.
What is a Software Stack?
A software stack is a collection of independent components that work together to support the execution of an application. The components, which may include an operating system, architectural layers, protocols, runtime environments, databases and function calls, are stacked one on top of each other in a hierarchy. Typically, the lower-level components in the hierarchy interact with hardware, while the higher-level components in the hierarchy perform specific tasks and services for the end user. Components communicate directly with the application through a series of complex instructions that traverse the stack.
https://searchapparchitecture.techtarget.com/definition/software-stack
The 3D technology that could revolutionize the treatment of osteoarthritis of the knee
A new technology called knee kinesiography is changing the way doctors treat of osteoarthritis of the knee. This form of osteoarthritis affects nearly four million Canadians, or 13.6 per cent of the population, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada.
Our research in biomechanics, chronic pain, radiology, epidemiology, physiotherapy and data science led us to develop and evaluate the clinical utility of a new technology called knee kinesiography, used to treat patients with osteoarthritis in Québec.
Ethics and governance of artificial intelligence for health. The WHO guidance on Ethics & Governance of Artificial
Intelligence for Health is the product of eighteen months of deliberation amongst leading experts in ethics, digital technology, law, human rights, as well as experts from Ministries of Health. While new technologies that use artificial intelligence hold great promise to improve diagnosis, treatment, health research and drug development and to support governments carrying out public health functions, including surveillance and outbreak response, such technologies, according to the report, must put ethics and human rights at the heart of its design, deployment, and use.
The report identifies the ethical challenges and risks with the use of artificial intelligence of health, six consensus principles to ensure AI works to the public benefit of all countries. It also contains a set of recommendations that can ensure the governance of artificial intelligence for health maximizes the promise of the technology and holds all stakeholders – in the public and private sector – accountable and responsive to the healthcare workers who will rely on these technologies and the communities and individuals whose health will be affected by its use.
https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240029200
The Future Is About Empathy, Not Coding
With the fast advancement of digital technologies and the allure of entrepreneurial lifestyle, plenty of people in different professions turn to coding thinking that the future will require even more IT skills than today. Although I do not question the importance of digital literacy in general, I believe medical professionals should rather master soft skills and acquire a futurist mindset than go for coding if they truly want to prepare for the coming decades.
https://medicalfuturist.com/future-empathy-not-coding
10 tips to help writers stay focused
There’s no getting around the fact that as a writer you must produce your craft either on paper or on a digital device of some kind. Even if you subscribe to voice recognition software where your dictation becomes your written work, there is time and commitment involved in creating all forms of writing. How, then, does the serious writer stay on task?
In this world where we can click away and change our minds instantly, be distracted by cellular devices, multitask and attend to a wide variety of our needs almost simultaneously, how do we stay on the path of quality writing and be proud of our accomplishments, our creations, and inspire others through our words?
These tips are in no particular order, except the first one, which is absolutely essential! And along the way, here are a few online tools that can aid in your process.
https://blog.bookbaby.com/2014/09/top-10-tips-for-writers-to-stay-focused/
WhatsApp messages have no evidential value: Supreme Court
‘Popularity is not a measure of reliability’ appears to have played on the minds of the Apex Court, which on Wednesday said messages exchanged on social media platform WhatsApp have no evidential value & that the author of such WhatsApp messages cannot be tied to them, especially in business partnerships governed by agreements.
“What is evidential value of WhatsApp messages these days? Anything can be created & deleted on social media these days. We don’t attach any value to the WhatsApp messages,” said a bench of Chief Justice N V Ramana & Justices A S Bopanna & Hrishikesh Roy.
https://www.latestlaws.com/latest-news/whatsapp-messages-have-no-evidential-value-supreme-court/
Podcasts: Forward Thinking
From the McKinsey Global Institute, conversations with today’s thought leaders to inspire tomorrow. Co-hosts Michael Chui and Anna Bernasek interview innovative thinkers and industry pioneers to explore the trends reshaping the global economy today and the future.
https://www.mckinsey.com/mgi/forward-thinking
IRAI Quiz -- 210721
1. Space tourist Charles Simonyi, flew to the International Space Station twice, in 2007 and 2009 has led the development of the popular productivity software -------------
2. The headline “Le marchand de la mort est mort”—the merchant of death is dead, was the impetus to establish the ------------- Prize
3. Russia’s most aggressive ransomware group is REvil. Expand REvil
4. DeFi refers to a blockchain based form of finance. Expand DeFi
5. The most standard example of a classification problem is when a computer is given pictures of ------ and -----, and is required to label all future images it sees as either ------- or ------
6. ------------- is a sort of portal app or an app platform from which you can seamlessly access multiple services. For eg., from one single app, therefore, you could send messages, transfer money, order things, perhaps fix a date and also book a restaurant table. It removes the need for downloading multiple apps on your phone and opening and closing them each time.
7. World Social Media day is celebrated annually on ---------- to highlight its role in today's time.
8. ------------- is the the first social media platform and was launched in 1997.
9. Virgin Galactic: VSS Unity = Blue Origin: ------------
10. The magazine The Engineer says — "he devoted so much time to acquiring clockmaking skills". Which Computer legendary is being referred to?
Answers at the end of the post.
Forthcoming Events
24th Jul 2021 at 6 pm IST. ACM, IEEE CS & CSI
Book launch & Presentation on The Ten Quotients For Personality Development
Speakers: General Bikram Singh (Retd.), PVSM, UYSM, AVSM, SM, VSM, Former Chief of the Indian Army & Chairman Chiefs of Staff & Major General Tajuddin Moulali Mhaisale (Retd.), VSM & Former Chief Technology Officer, Chief Innovation Officer & Senior Systems Administrator, Indian Army & Author of the Book "The Ten Quotients: A Complete Guide For Personality"
Register at https://bit.ly/3h2WWSm
31st Jul 2021 at 6 pm IST. CSI, ACM & IEEE CS
Webinar on Soft Skills for Interview Success
Speaker: Mr. R Saravana Kumar, Former Director, Cognizant Technology Solutions
Register at https://bit.ly/36HLeqp
14th Aug 2021 at 6 pm IST. IEEE CS, ACM & CSI
Webinar on Emerging Technology and Innovation in Post COVID World
Speaker: Prof. Sanjiva Shankar Dubey, Prof. and Head IT & Chairperson, Centre of Online Studies, Birla Institute of Management Technology (BIMTECH), Greater Noida & Author of the book "Technology and Innovation Management"
Register at https://bit.ly/36AHKG6
Note: All registered participants will receive a free copy of Chapter 1 of the book TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION MANAGEMENT, authored by Prof . Dubey in pdf format. In addition, the event attendees will get a special discount of 30% on print book and 25% on eBook while purchasing the book at the PHI website.
28th Aug 2021 at 6 pm IST. CSI, ACM & IEEE CS
Webinar on Demystifying CI/CD and DevOps
Speaker: Mr. Sridhar Pandurangiah, Chief Technology Officer, Sastra Technologies Pvt Ltd
Register at https://bit.ly/3BaPdda
For more events in Jul 2021: https://bit.ly/35FByfN
For more events in Aug 2021: https://bit.ly/2W2kcYS
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Answers to IRAI Quiz -- 210721
1. MS Office
2. Nobel
3. Ransomware Evil
4. Decentralised Finance
5. dogs, cats
6. Super App
7. June 30
8. Sixdegrees
9. New Shepherd
10. Charles Babbage
