A site devoted mostly to everything related to Information Technology under the sun - among other things.

Thursday, April 27, 2017

Amazon Echo tells you what to wear

From Grauniad of the UK -

The real question being: why does one need to take 'selfies'?

I want my fridge to tell me what I should eat. My hoover to tell me where the most dust is to be found in my flat. My kettle to choose for me whether I should have tea or coffee.

I want my life run by Amazon.com.

___________________________

https://lnkd.in/eMW3QwE?


Amazon unveils Echo Look, a selfie camera to help you choose what to wear
www.theguardian.com
Hands-free, voice-powered smart selfie camera takes photos and videos on command while its virtual assistant Alexa gives fashion advice

Monday, April 10, 2017

Hacking Sensors By Sound

Cyber-security News:

How to hack sensors via their acoustic resonant frequencies:

http://ns.umich.edu/new/multimedia/videos/24664-sonic-cyber-attack-shows-security-holes-in-ubiquitous-sensors

Sensor Fusion Tools

When building sensor-based systems we have to deal with the fact that some sensor inputs are sometimes inaccurate and incomplete, making the extraction of useful information difficult.

There is an approach called sensor fusion in which each sensor, with its own strengths and weaknesses, is  leveraged with some other sensors to offset its weaknesses; thus increasing accuracy and expanding functionality of the entire sensor network.

The tools below purport to support the development of sensor fusion algorithms:

•    MEMS Industry Group’s AIC library - http://github.com/memsindustrygroup/Open-Source-Sensor-Fusion
•    NXP/Freescale - http://nxp.com/products/sensors/nxp-sensor-fusion
•    PNI Sensor Corp - http://pnicorp.com/
•    Analog Devices - http://analog.com/
•    InvenSense - http://invensense.com/sensorstudio
•    Baselabs Create - http://baselabs.de/data-fusion-algorithm-design

Azure AD Connect

Evidently, to support Active Directory in Azure – for security and access control requirements – one  has to obtain, install, and configure the Azure AD Connect software on a Windows server (could be a VM) on one’s premises.

See please below the 2 technical notes:



This step requires someone that has global AD Admin. Rights – someone from IT Network Infrastructure.

This tool then acts as a proxy between the site-specific AD and the Azure AD.

Azure AD does not support multiple forests, there is no concept of Forests in Azure AD. It is completely flat.

I also read that the Azure AD Connect does not support LDAP.

While I think setting up a Web application within Azure is not overly complex, I think a full turn-key implementation is more complex as the functionality of the on premise IT Infrastructure needs to be investigated, mapped, and connected to Azure’s capabilities.

In case of multi-site organizations with many sites within the United States and also many sites externally in UK, Germany, Singapore, Angola – each with its own AD Forest – one has 2 choices available to oneself; either leverage Federation or flatten the organization into one Azure AD tenant.

AD Connect is pretty great if you use it for what it was designed for and it supports many different topologies. If it does not fit the customers requirements for some reason then,  "yes", federation using ADFS to Azure is another option.

More Reading:


https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/connect/active-directory-aadconnect

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/connect/active-directory-aadconnect-topologies


Nonprofit Under Attack

Nonprofit Under Attack: A Cyber Defense Case Study:

https://redmondmag.com/articles/2017/04/01/defense-in-depth.aspx

Friday, April 7, 2017

NASA Software Catalog

Among all these US restricted, US Government restricted, and publicly available software, there must be some hidden gems.  Look for them @  https://software.nasa.gov/

Require registration.


Worth reading: "Software Testing and the Human Factor"



Tuesday, April 4, 2017

Man Marries Robot

From Grauniad of the UK

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/04/chinese-man-marries-robot-built-himself

Chinese man 'marries' robot he built himself

Zheng Jiajia had grown tired of pressure to get married so he turned to Yingying, a robot spouse he constructed last year.

About Me

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I am a senior software developer working for General Motors Corporation.. I am interested in intelligent computing and scientific computing. I am passionate about computers as enablers for human imagination. The contents of this site are not in any way, shape, or form endorsed, approved, or otherwise authorized by HP, its subsidiaries, or its officers and shareholders.

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