Dali Avatar

GIZMAG -- Avatars 

The virtual Salvador Dali is almost better than the real one was. With hindsight, now we have the copy, did we need the original, back then? 

"I think it's a great idea -- great idea. I love it," commented an inspired POTUS in one of his now legendary tweets. "I've asked Melanie, my wife from Slovakia, and Ivanka, my darling daughter who loves her Daddy very, very much, to have me mummified in due course, and keep me alive forever. I will donate my superior brain to science and all the data will be downloaded into a Virtual Donald that will live on until the end of times. I will tweet well into the 22nd and 23rd centuries. I know you're all looking forward to it! I'm going to be around for a while, my fellow Americans... Love you America!"

https://newatlas.com/salvador-dali-ai-generated-computer-museum-exhibition/59641/?

Progress in Robotics

From Boston Dynamics:

https://dms.licdn.com/playback/C5105AQE-cwvI7bds-A/42d9dde641564af984c6ab631fcf0df0/feedshare-mp4_3300-captions-thumbnails/1507940147251-drlcss?e=1557262800&v=beta&t=1GaScGT4admeRbaTPNDAfV8uZjJyUdW3msreeJf-RGE

The Burn’s IT Imperatives

The Burn’s IT Imperatives

[After an article by Ambassador (Ret.) William J Burns in Foreign Policy Magazine - https://foreignpolicy.com/2014/10/23/10-parting-thoughts-for-americas-diplomats/]

1. Know where you come from, your strengths and weaknesses.
2. It’s not always about you or your team.
3. Master the fundamentals; understand the specific Framework, Methodology, Technology you are using.
4. Stay ahead of the curve; keep learning and keep trying new ways of doing things.
5. Promote economic renewal; your systems should help make money or save money.
6. Connect leverage to strategy; use your knowledge and experience and wisdom to support the strategic business goals.
7. Don’t just admire the problem—be not afraid of offering a solution and thus starting a discussion that could lead to a solution.
8. Speak truth to power; put your concerns on the table.
9. Accept risk.
10. Remain optimistic.

The Dead Horse Theory

Unhelpful Buzzwords

From City AM of the UK -- A partial selection 

It's obviously, literally rather annoying. Sorry, not sorry. 

http://www.cityam.com/275916/office-banter-bosses-left-fuming-buzzwords-have-literally?

To Micro-service or to Not Micro-service

From SD Times:

With microservices, more isn’t always better

https://sdtimes.com/micro/with-microservices-more-isnt-always-better/

Hacking Tesla

Hackers gain control of Tesla:
From Russia Today -
https://www.rt.com/news/455341-chinese-hackers-tesla-autopilot/
and Forbes -
https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2016/09/20/keen-team-remotely-hack-tesla-cars/#6d9d351b22b7
Here is the Keen Lab website. It explains what they did and how they could do it.
https://keenlab.tencent.com/en/2019/03/29/Tencent-Keen-Security-Lab-Experimental-Security-Research-of-Tesla-Autopilot/

Bashe Attack

This report is a new publication from the Cyber Risk Management (CyRiM) project, the Singapore-based public-private initiative that assesses cyber risks, of which Lloyd’s is one of the founding members. 

At its worst, it could cause $193 billion worth of damages, at very least - $85 billion.

Read the report to find out how a ransomware attack could affect your organisation, sector or country.

https://www.lloyds.com/news-and-risk-insight/risk-reports/library/technology/bashe-attack

Exoskeletons

7 Exoskeletons Are Making The World Easier To Navigate

https://youtu.be/228Uk82L_Pg

Marty the Robot

Marty the Robot @ Stop n Shop
https://dms.licdn.com/playback/C4E05AQESs_fwYVKwdA/088bdd09fc884291bc95edd8a7174b9e/feedshare-mp4_3300-captions-thumbnails/1507940147251-drlcss?e=1553612400&v=beta&t=FiohlG-WIJpRL6OBRWpGIaIhmiVbKJkNBwuKdpyp4nU

GIZMAG - Techy Toilet Seat

"I think it is a great idea," tweeted a thoughtful and inspired POTUS. "I do a lot of thinking when I am sitting on my toilet seat. I think it'd be great if the toilet could monitor my brain waves and work out how my brain works: it would provide science with a stream of exciting data into the Mind of a Great Man called Donald Trump via his Bottom. I love you, America! Defecate in peace!"

In the not-too-distant future, when congestive heart failure patients are being released from hospital, they may be given a special toilet seat to take home. That device would measure their vital signs every time they sit on it, sending alerts if more heart trouble were detected. 

Developed by a team at the Rochester Institute of Technology, the seat is equipped with an electrocardiogram, ballistocardiogram, and a photoplethysmogram. These allow it measure the patient's heart rate, blood pressure, blood oxygenation levels, body weight and stroke volume, which is the amount of blood that the heart pumps out with each beat.

https://newatlas.com/heart-failure-toilet-seat/58974/

Techy toilet seat made to monitor heart patients Special algorithms analyze all that data, and determine if the patient's condition is deteriorating – a diagnosis can be made even before the patient develops any noticeable symptoms.

Useful Data Science Cheat Sheets

Useful Data Science Cheat Sheets

https://github.com/abhat222/Data-Science--Cheat-Sheet?files=1

Developer Testing vs. End-User Testing

Developer Testing vs. End-User Testing

https://dms.licdn.com/playback/C5605AQFMMzQENWjI0g/a472775388ae40fc85f33dd441f7000d/feedshare-mp4_3300-captions-thumbnails/1507940147251-drlcss?e=1552575600&v=beta&t=2uQqYBcYcJHV-Ci3rDlks2-gR8Sih5iNurxaA-Zg-aA

Open-Plan Offices

It's Official: Open-Plan Offices Are Now the Dumbest Management Fad of All Time:

https://www.inc.com/geoffrey-james/its-official-open-plan-offices-are-now-dumbest-management-fad-of-all-time.html

Internet of Bovines

From City AM

It is the I of B [Internet of Bovines] 

"I am worried about it. It may become a compulsion, I think it's called, whereby I log on and check what my Favourite Cow is doing 50 times a day... My wife might become jealous of Daisy. Daisy is the cow," explains Mr David Jones, a farmer in mid-Wales. "I might fall in love with Daisy. She's so beautiful. Karen, my wife, says that I'm already in love with Trevor, and is jealous of Trevor. It's all making my personal life more and more stressful. I can't cope any more."

"And Trevor is?" asks the confused BBC Wales journalist, Miss Prunella Twinky-Knickers, blushing slightly.

"Trevor? He's a very handsome sheep and we've been in a very close relationship for the past 4 years. Trevor is the love of..." 

"That's all we have time for, I am afraid, and back to you in the studio in Cardiff!" shrieks Miss Prunella Twinky-Knickers in a panic.

"Prunella, thank you for this fantastic report from happy, lively, rural Wales," says Mr David Jones [no relation] in the Cardiff studio. "Onto another story of interest in North Wales: a flock of geese has escaped from a farm on Anglesey and its owner, farmer David Jones, has..." 

http://www.cityam.com/274096/new-5g-app-gives-smartphone-users-insight-into-lives?

Computers, AI, and Place Disparities

From the Brookings Institution

Countering the geographical impacts of automation: Computers, AI, and place disparities

https://www.brookings.edu/research/countering-the-geographical-impacts-of-automation-computers-ai-and-place-disparities/

Dev vs. Ops: The State of Accountability

The long, windy road:

Dev vs. Ops: The State of Accountability – “The road to DevOps is paved with chaos”

https://jaxenter.com/devops-accountability-report-153354.html 

Report requires registration.

Real World Meets Virtual World

Augmented Reality Makes Driver-less Vehicle Testing Faster, Safer, and Cheaper

https://mcity.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/mcity-whitepaper-augmented-reality.pdf

Ice-skating Robot

BBC (very short video)

The robot is better at it than I was last time I tried, which is rather a long time ago. The only thing missing is a tutu (in the robot's case).

___________________________________

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/technology-46988569/robot-teaches-itself-to-ice-skate

Software Apocalypse?

From the Atlantic Magazine:

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/09/saving-the-world-from-code/540393/