Facebook, the company that accidentally killed fact-based
reality, almost upgraded itself to “accidental species extinction”
during a deep learning experiment. In an exercise known as a generative
adversarial network, which pitted one artificial intelligence (AI)
against another AI, the researchers writing the terms of the contest
forgot one little thing: “there was no reward to sticking to English
language.”
As a result, the AIs innovated a more efficient method of
communication for their purposes. As you can see in the “conversation”
below, this language is relatively incomprehensible to humans.
“This isn’t so different from
the way communities of humans create shorthands,” said Dhruv Batra, a
visiting research scientist from Georgia Tech at Facebook AI Research
(FAIR). The one crucial difference here is processing power. “It’s
perfectly possible for a special token to mean a very complicated
thought,” Batra said. “The reason why humans have this idea of
decomposition, breaking ideas into simpler concepts, it’s because we
have a limit to cognition.”
Luckily, Facebook shut the robot revolution down before it could begin.
However, did they act too hastily? In his article,
Fast Company’s Mike Wilson discusses some of the advantages of letting
computers write their own languages. First off, computers solve problems
better when the data they’re fed is in “a format that makes sense for
machine learning,” rather than convoluted English. Second, in a world
where computers can speak to each other without human intervention, we
could eliminate the need for APIs to facilitate one program working with
another.
The con here, of course, is that the little baby Terminators
we’re breeding could start talking about us behind our backs. They
could plot to overthrow us in terms we wouldn’t be able to translate.
Maliciously trained AIs – say, those incentivized to destabilize an
electric grid – could independently communicate with vulnerable systems
in an indecipherable language which would make it very difficult for
human hackers to understand what happened and troubleshoot. There’d be
no 404 error codes in this AI-to-AI language. ONLY T-800s.
Radio-Frequency Identification is the use of radio waves to read,
capture, and interact with information stored on a tag. Tags are usually
attached to objects, and can be read from several feet away.
Furthermore, the tag doesn’t always have to be in the direct
line-of-sight to initiate interaction.
An RFID tag is an easy way to assign a unique identity to an object.
Additionally, they do not need an internal power source, while a tag can
be as small as a grain of black pepper. Meaning they are easily
embedded almost anywhere — hence their popularity.
How Does RFID Work?
A basic RFID system comprises two parts: the tag, and the reader.
Tag
The RFID tag has an embedded transmitter and receiver. The actual
RFID component contained in a tag has two parts: an integrated circuit
for storing and processing information, and an antenna to receive and
transmit a signal. The RFID tag has non-volatile memory storage, and can
included either fixed or programmable logic for processing transmission
and sensor data.
Tags can be passive, active, or battery-assistive passive.
A passive tag is the cheapest option, and features no battery. The tag uses radio energy transmitted by the reader.
An active tag features an onboard battery, periodically transmitting its credentials.
A battery-assistive passive tag also features a small onboard battery, but is only activated when in the presence of an RFID reader.
Furthermore, a tag may be either read-only, or read/write. A read-only tag has a factory assigned serial number used for identification in a database, while a read/write tag can have specific custom data written to the tag by the user.
Reader
The RFID reader features a two-way radio transmitted-reciever
(transciever), sometimes referred to as an interrogator. The transceiver
transmits an encoded radio signal to interogate the tag. The radio
signal essentially wakes or activates the tag. In turn, the tag
transponder converts the radio signal into usable power, and responds to
the reader.
Types of RFID System
We generally classify the type of RFID system by the type of tag and reader. There are three common combinations:
Passive Reader Active Tag (PRAT): The reader is passive, only receiving radio signals from an active
tag. Because the tag is battery powered, the transmit/reception range
can be from 0-2,000 feet (0-600m). As such, PRAT is a flexible RFID
solution.
Active Reader Passive Tag (ARPT): The reader is active, transmitting an interrogator radio signal, receiving authentication signal replies from passive tags.
Active Reader Active Tag (ARAT): The reader is active, and interacts with active or battery-assistive passive tags.
In addition to the RFID system type, RFID uses a set of regulated
frequency bands. See the frequency band table below for an understanding
of certain frequencies and their uses.
What is OPID?
Optical RFID (OPID) is an RFID alternative that uses optical readers.
OPID operates in the electromagnetic spectrum between the frequencies
of 333 THz and 380 THz.
How Much Data?
The amount of information stored on an RFID tag varies. For instance,
a passive tag may only store up to 1024 bytes of information — that’s
just one kilobyte (KB). Laughable in terms of modern storage capacity,
but enough to store a full name, identification number, birthday, SSN,
credit card information, and so much more. The aerospace industry,
however, use passive ultra-high frequency RFID tags with 8KB storage to
track part history over time. These could store a massive amount of
personal data on.
Common RFID Uses
RFID tags are everywhere. Because they’re easily attached to almost
anything, have no power requirement, and are potentially minute, they
are used in all walks of life, including:
Goods management and tracking
Person and animal tracking
Contactless payments
Travel documents
Barcodes and security tags
Healthcare data management
Timing
Security
The sudden surge in RFID has created security issues, too. Most
recently, the advent of contactless payment cards featuring an RFID tag
has come under scrutiny. Nefarious individuals were “skimming” payments
from contactless cards using portable payment terminals, all while the
RFID-enabled card resides in the targets pocket or wallet. If you’re
worried about this type of fraud, check out Joel Lee’s run-down on RFID blocking wallets.
In the U.K., another example involves RFID tags
stored in passports. When first introduced, the encryption on the new
U.K. passport was cracked within 48 hours. Additionally, reports emerged
that criminals were stealing post containing a new passport, scanning the RFID tag for the data, and then sending them on their way.
Java is one of the best programming languages for development. The
popularity and usage of Java are still increasing even after two decades
which is a big time for any Programming language. There are only a few
programming languages which seem hard to get replaced and Java is one of
them.Here are 5 reasons why java is one of the best programming language.
Why is Java the best programming Language?
1. Object Orientation
Java is an object-oriented programming language that supports all
principles like Data Abstraction, Encapsulation, Polymorphism,
Overloading, Overriding, and Inheritance. Which makes it as powerful as
C++. We all know C++ is the extended version of C programming. Thus, it
makes Java better than C programming.
2. Rich API
Another big reason to learn Java is it’s Rich API. Java provides API
for almost everything you need in development like I/O, networking,
utilities, XML parsing, database connection etc. Whatever left is
covered by open source libraries like Apache Commons, Google Guava, and
others.
3. Great collection of Open Source libraries
The big organisations like Apache, Google, and others has contributed
to add a lot of great libraries, which makes Java development very
easy, faster and cost effective.
4. Platform Independent and Free
In the 1990s, this was the main reason for Java’s popularity. The
idea of platform independence is great, and Java’s tagline “write once
run anywhere” was enticing enough to attract lots of new development in
Java. This is still one of the reason of Java being best programming
language, most of Java applications are developed in Windows environment
and run in UNIX platform.
Java is free from the start, i.e. you don’t need to pay anything to
create Java application. This FREE thing also helped Java to become
popular among individual programmers, and among large organisations.
5. Wonderful Community and Documentation
There is Java community to help beginners, advanced and even expert
Java programmers. Java actually promotes taking and giving back to
community habit. Lots of programmers, who use open source, tester etc.
The expert programmer provides advice FREE at various Java forums and
StackOverflow. This is simply amazing and gives a lot of confidence to a
newbie in Java.
Javadoc made learning easy and provide an excellent reference while
coding in Java. With an advent of IDE, you don’t even need to look
Javadoc explicitly in a browser, but you can get all information in your
IDE window itself.
Final Notes
Java is everywhere, it’s on the desktop, it’s on mobile, it’s on a card, almost everywhere and so is Java programmers.
Integrated Development Environment (IDE) Like Eclipse and Netbeans made
Java development much easier, faster and fluent. It’s easy to search,
refactor and read code using IDEs.
In our previous article, we have mentioned 10 best android applications for programmers.
These Android applications can help you to increase your programming
knowledge and coding practice. In this article, I am going to share top 5
Android applications to Learn Hacking from your mobile phone.
Many people are using smartphones for study purpose and there are
many Android apps for that. When it comes to Learn Hacking from your
phone, people do not have much knowledge to share.
Hacking Tutorial v2 is a step by step guide that explains various
hacking techniques. This app presents tried and tested tutorials for
beginners looking for a way into the hacking universe. This app shows
you the easiest, most direct ways to safely perform a given hack, how it
works, and most importantly how to protect yourself against them.
Features
All hacking tutorials are guaranteed to work
A Chatroom to discuss hacking with fellow learners
The aim of this application is either to help people begin to learn
about hacking or to see how hackers work, how they can attack and How to
protect yourself. This app explains the every possible hacking
technique and shows how to perform them. It teaches you:
Whitebook is a growing community of White Hat Hackers or so Called the
Security Professionals, We Begin with tutorials and Techniques to become
a Security Professional and Later Will Grow as a Community where with
jobs updates, Project Updates, Support and everything related to Cyber
Security to our user.
HACK HACKERS is an extraordinary tutorial app that will save you from
getting hacked and save your personal details from being misused. It provides the knowledge of how to:
Secure your Wi-Fi password and Wireless Router
Secure your IP address
Prevent your FB account from being hacked
Secure your email account
Make up a password that is both secure and memorable
Secure your WhatsApp chat
Hacking precautions
Precautions for hacked websites
Secure a pen drive?
Protect your private information on FB
How to protect me when online Five Ways to Download Torrents Anonymously
How to hide your IP Address?
The source of information is technotification.com and for more queries you can comment us below.
SQL (Structured Query Language) is a fourth-generation language
(4GL) that is used to define, manipulate, and control an RDBMS
(relational database management system).
Before starting the main article, let us get familiar with the used tools.
Compiler: Code::Blocks IDE with MinGW compiler
Download Link:Binary Download
Code::Blocks is a cross compiler (It can run on any platform like
Windows, Linux and Mac) and it is free to download. This IDE is
specially designed for C and C++ and easy to use.
SQLAPI++ is a C++ library (basically a
set of header files) for accessing multiple SQL databases (Oracle, SQL
Server, DB2, Sybase, Informix, InterBase, SQLBase, MySQL, PostgreSQL,
SQLite, SQL Anywhere and ODBC). It is easy to implement and simple.
OCCI: Oracle C++ Call Interface
Download Link: OCCI C++ Download
OCCI is an interface defined by the database company ORACLE that defines
a comfortable interfacefor the C++ programmer to access the Oracle
database with classes using parameters that are reminiscent of SQL
statements. The interface exists for ORACLE 9i, ORACLE 10 and comes with
the Oracle.
We must download and install the above three (if we don’t have them). Now we are almost ready to start.
Some settings before starting:
-> Open the code::blocks IDE and go to or click on settings -> compiler and debugger settings (You will now see global compiler settings)
-> Now click on “Linker settings” in the linker settings click on ADD button and add the following
For Windows OS :
Code:
C:\SQLAPI\lib\libsqlapiddll.a
C:\Program Files\CodeBlocks\MinGW\lib\libuser32.a
C:\Program Files\CodeBlocks\MinGW\lib\libversion.a
C:\Program Files\CodeBlocks\MinGW\lib\liboleaut32.a
C:\Program Files\CodeBlocks\MinGW\lib\libole32.a
These will be found in your SQLAPI++ (If you have not extracted in C:
drive then select the appropriate location and add the mentioned files
to linker settings).
The above code is used to add library files to connect C/C++ program with SQLAPI.
Basically, there are 2 steps:
Connecting to database (and error handling) Code:
// C++ pgroram for connecting to database (and error handling)
#include<stdio.h>
#include<SQLAPI.h> // main SQLAPI++ header
intmain(intargc, char* argv[])
{
// create connection object to connect to database
SAConnection con;
try
{
// connect to database
// in this example, it is Oracle,
// but can also be Sybase, Informix, DB2
// SQLServer, InterBase, SQLBase and ODBC
con.Connect ("test", // database name
"tester", // user name
"tester", // password
SA_Oracle_Client); //Oracle Client
printf("We are connected!\n");
// Disconnect is optional
// autodisconnect will occur in destructor if needed
It is one thing to come up with a wacky idea for transforming our cities or constructing the world’s greatest supervillain evil lair; another to have the expertise and inclination to actually research and build one for real. A new research project coming out of the Netherlands quite handily ticks both boxes. Developed by researchers at the Maritime Research Institute Netherlands (MARIN), their idea is to develop giant artificial islands like today’s floating docks — only on a much, much bigger scale. Like, several miles wide bigger.
And they may just pull it off, too.
“With the world’s increasing population there is not necessarily enough space in the cities, or close to the coast where a lot of people live and work,” Olaf Waals, project manager and the concept developer, told Digital Trends. “These are also areas that are susceptible to flooding with rising sea levels. We thought it was an interesting idea to look at the technical feasibility of building floating mega islands. There are lots of futuristic concepts out there for floating harbors, farms, or cities. We wanted to look at how realistic a proposition this actually is, and come up with a workable concept.”
Waals’ idea involves modular giant triangles which lock together to form sizeable land masses, up to 3.1 miles in width. At least in theory, it is a pretty nifty idea. Given that 70 percent of our planet is covered by water, floating mega islands offer a whole lot more space to play with. They could be used for housing and recreation, or for the generation and storage of sustainable energy technologies like offshore wind farms, tidal energy, and floating solar panels, or for floating farms for breeding fish and seaweed.
Right now, the MARIN team is busy running computer simulations and testing a physical scale model to try and better understand the environmental conditions such a mega island would have to contend with. These potential challenges involve working out how to develop structures that are strong and safe enough to withstand winds and currents; how best to connect them together and to the seabed; and the environmental impact a water-bound floating community would have on its surroundings.
With a consortium of around 20 companies and research institutes now attached, work on the project is set to continue for the next three years. And after that? Our childhood dream of a real-life Waterworld hopefully becomes a reality.
Is it too early to start an online petition to get Kevin Costner appointed as mayor of the first floating mega city? We think not!
It may sound counterintuitive, but Alphabet’s life sciences unit Verily is releasing about 20 million mosquitoes in Fresno, California in order to fight Zika, the mosquito-borne illness. It’s part of Verily’s Debug Project, an initiative announced last October with the mission of reducing “the devastating global health impact that disease-carrying mosquitoes inflict on people around the world.” And now, Verily is launching Debug Fresno, the company’s first field study in the U.S. that will test a mosquito control method that involves sterile insect technique.
In essence, the 20 million mosquitoes Verily is releasing are all sterile males that have been treated with Wolbachia, a naturally occurring bacterium. The test is said to be the largest release of sterile male mosquitoes in the U.S. thus far. Over the next 20 weeks, these bugs will be released in two neighborhoods around 300 acres large. The hope is that when these sterile males mate with wild females, which can carry and transmit a number of diseases including Zika, dengue, and chikungunya, the resulting eggs will not hatch. Verily will determine the success of its test by comparing the adult population density and egg hatching of this particular kind of mosquito in the targeted neighborhoods to two control neighborhoods.
And don’t worry — male mosquitoes do not bite, so even though you might be seeing more of these critters around, you won’t be itching as a result.
Linus Upson, a senior engineer at Verily, told the MIT Technology Review that this could ultimately become a cost effective way to control mosquito populations, and get rid of diseases (though he didn’t say how much exactly this experiment actually costs). “If we really want to be able to help people globally, we need to be able to produce a lot of mosquitoes, distribute them to where they need to be, and measure the populations at very, very low costs,” he said. “We want to show this can work in different kinds of environments,” he told the magazine.
Alphabet, the holding company in charge of Google, rebranded its Google Life Sciences team as Verily at the end of 2015, and said the team would move away from Google and become its own independent division.
So look out, Fresno. You may hear a lot more buzzing in the coming weeks, but rest assured, it’s all for good purpose.
