Google and OpenSK

This is a good read and also good to-know.
https://security.googleblog.com/2020/01/say-hello-to-opensk-fully-open-source.html

Microsoft's Project Tokyo

First let me say that I'm in awe of how Microsoft is on the up and up with having so many software (and overall system) projects in progress. Usually I rarely hear about Microsoft and often hear more about Google or Facebook projects. Maybe even Amazon, but those are usually more hardware related.

Anyhow, I'm super happy to hear about this Project Tokyo! Another great project in the suite of wonder from Microsoft.

Read more from Venture Beat:
https://venturebeat.com/2020/01/28/microsofts-project-tokyo-helps-visually-impaired-users-see-with-ai-and-ar/

Reference
https://news.microsoft.com/innovation-stories/project-tokyo/

Review: An Entrepreneur Story from CrowdTrust to Bowery Farming

As I was learning more about Bowery Farming (which I'll blog soon about), I learned that the founder Irving Fain had created another company called CrowdTwist beforehand.

CrowdTrust

But what really caught my attention isn't the company or the product (at least not for CrowdTrust), but the story entrepreneur Irving Fain in starting his first company. He was working a good job in a corporation and had an idea with one of his colleagues. Together they took a risk and got accepted into the TechStars NYC program where they actually got funded for a few months to *prepare* to pitch their prototype.

TechStars NYC

Wait? They possible accept teams with new ideas but without even a prototype of their product? Well, that's what I understand, surprisingly. See, here's a snippet from the TechStars NYC website:

Learn more about TechStars by watching this video.

Irving Fain - Successful Entrepreneur

I also learned a lot from his interview on Cornell Tech.




Yep, and just like that, I'm a fan of Irving Fain. Great thinking and doing, Mr. Fain!!

Bowery Farming

Now, back to Bowery Farming.

This is definitely changing the future of food and I'm looking forward to it. It is even going to change how people grow their own gardens at home.

An Employee's Story Inside Bowery Farming

Rethinking the entire Food Supply Chain

Good, healthy stuff - thanks, Mr. Fain!

References

• https://www.youtube.com/user/techstarstv
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pFVvjJPhR0 (TechStars Atlanta 2017 Program Overview)

Reminder: Tech Giants providing Future of Education

Just in case you are like me and still wondering how long public schools (or any school in some states) will take to catch up with restructuring their schooling system to the workforce demand, here's a resourceful website by Google on Education.

https://edu.google.com/code-with-google/?modal_active=none&story-card_activeEl=enhance-any-subject

Google isn't the only one, however. Microsoft has their own resourceful website focused on One Hour of Code. Apple has Everyone can Code. For young students specifically, Apple also has an education site called Teaching Code. Even Amazon is aware of the educational crises and creating their own online schooling resource: AmazonInspire. Of course, the other tech giant Facebook has their own with Facebook Education.

Rather than wait for our government or public sector to provide the skills and education that our world demands, I think I'll take the initiative with using resources from such leading companies and encourage my family, friends, and neighbors to learn ahead. After all, home schooling is on the rise and many families are supplementing their social education via faith institutions, sport clubs, city clubs, etc.

In Addition

From this GitHub post, I can even see how hackathons boost the learning levels of students better than coursework in computer science. If students begin to take on this project-based assignment (i.e. learning skills through projects rather than test-based assignments), then students will end up not only learning more but also remembering more. This could spark a new kind of homeschooling or custom learning path. Why not just learn on your own at your own pace and then pass a universal, online high school exam for a degree? Wouldn't that be nice?!

Quick References

• https://edu.google.com/code-with-google/
• https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/digital-skills/hour-of-code
• https://www.apple.com/everyone-can-code/
• https://www.apple.com/education/teaching-code/
• https://www.amazoninspire.com/
• https://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000412651
• https://www.facebook.com/education/
• https://education.fb.com/
• https://education.fb.com/get-connected/
• https://www.nheri.org/homeschool-population-size-growing/
• https://github.blog/2019-07-17-survey-results-better-computer-science-learning-through-hackathons/

Review: Self-Driving Trucks

There's a lot of talk about self-driving cars, but how much do you know about the industry for self-driving trucks?

I didn't know much until now - after watching this video (below). It's already here - i.e. there are already autonomous, self-driving trucks on the road right now. And for your convenience, I have add more video clips regarding the top two companies producing self-driving trucks: Embark & TuSimple.

In short, people will no longer need to drive trucks. Since trucks pose a large risk to people's lives on the road, I don't think these trucks will be 100% autonomous, self-driving. There will be a person from the trucking company's headquarters (or somewhere) supervising the trucks and ensuring these trucks on the road are driving carefully and safely. Something like remote control driving. And that means cybersecurity will be even more important (which I can't wasn't mentioned in these videos). It's one thing to talk about robots (including self-driving trucks) will function well and safely, but it's another thing to talk about robots having security without being manipulated by hackers.

How Amazon Demand Drives Autonomous Truck Tech (by CNBC)

Embark

Tu Simple

Could driverless vehicles spell the end of the road for truck drivers? (by PBS)

References

• https://embarktrucks.com/
• https://www.tusimple.com/

Review: Red Hat Summit 2019

I watched this recap and it seems the improvements were more for server-side technologies than anything else (with a strong emphasis on OpenShift and Cloud Computing, Cloud Development).

I may need to look into more articles and videos to learn if I missed anything transformative in tech.



On the business side however, their partnership with Microsoft and being acquired by IBM are two big things for the open source community. The direction with such leadership will be interesting for all things open source supported and promoted.

Microsoft's partnership with Red Hat

Interview with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella

IBM's acquisition of Red Hat

Interview with IBM's CEO Ginni Rometty

Read Summary

Here's a good article to read a summary of this summit.
https://hub.packtpub.com/red-hat-summit-2019-highlights-microsoft-collaboration-red-hat-enterprise-linux-8-rhel-8-idc-study-predicts-support-for-software-worth-10-trillion/?utm_source=all+updates&utm_campaign=6dccc7274b-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_05_09_01_11&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c970747b22-6dccc7274b-173383461&mc_cid=6dccc7274b&mc_eid=e79d6c1eb8

References

• https://www.redhat.com/en/about/press-releases/ibm-acquire-red-hat-completely-changing-cloud-landscape-and-becoming-worlds-1-hybrid-cloud-provider

Review: Apple's WWDC 2019

Yeah, I'm not amazed with anything that was announced at Apple's WWDC. It's tough to beat such conferences where Steve Jobs would come out and surprise the world with a new device that, without question, changed the way people lived: iPod, iPhone, iPad, etc.

But, I'm glad to see they have lots of enhancements.

One thing I did like was the person standing (seemingly) in the virtual room. That was cool and different.

Review: Robinhood the app

"democratize America's financial system..." - Baiju Bhatt (co-founder of Robinhood)

This is great - to see how the FinTech industry is finally creating a channel for Main Street to challenge Wall Street. Even if Robinhood fails, it will be for the betterment of society and show other fintech companies how to continue empowering the average American.

The American Economy

Far too long, banks have been the middle man of the American economic system and controlling the middle class (as well as the poor class). If you're like me, then you too were also pissed about how our federal government bailed banks out of the crisis they caused back in 2008 during the housing bust. And banks had no reviving method except through America's hardworking taxpayers' money (i.e. taxes). So, our American government continues to support an outdated financial system that doesn't help each American citizen. In the same way politics is starting to reshape, it's about time our economy also reshapes in interest for the American people (and not just American rich people).

The Global Economy

Even though this is centered on America, like most technologies this will become an international influence and make other national economies figure out how to empower citizens and advance the international economy including laws with international trade. After all, the world is more globally integrated and it's time our governments figured how to let people buy/sell without having to worry about import/export regulations (which in many ways don't really protect people but only super rich people). Economic justice needs to be practiced. It's already in demand.

Cheers!

References

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_Economic_Stabilization_Act_of_2008
• https://www.forbes.com/sites/mikecollins/2015/07/14/the-big-bank-bailout/#629d12ba2d83
• https://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-baker-bailout-20180914-story.html

Review: Facial Recognition by Airlines via Government Data

I'm sparked with many thoughts from reading this article. I would have been shocked like, the passenger in the article, if asked for my face to confirm my seat to on-board the flight. From a technological perspective, does it resolve the seating conflicts that sometimes still occur due to the facial recognition technology (i.e. two faces can't have the same seat)? From an ethical perspective, what other data is known about me with the airline and how else is the airline using it?

As I think more about it, what laws are in place to protect my rights as an American citizen upon my re-entry into the country (via Custom and Borders Protection).

Furthermore, is the government making money using my personal data? What are the security protocols for passing my private, personal data across government organizations? Will people start lying about their identity because of this data exposure without individual's consent?

The author makes some powerful points here that should be heavily considered. We need to apply the same questions to all organizations storing our personal data, and not just Facebook. Especially, the government. And, Congress needs to upgrade their process in getting things done for the people. The people can no longer tolerate Congress's slowness and ineffective methods used to protect the people of America.

Read Article

https://www.zdnet.com/article/facial-recognition-creeps-up-on-a-jetblue-passenger-and-she-hates-it/

Lastly, I'm thankful for JetBlue being responsive and transparent in answering MacKenzie's questions. This is the kind of customer service and trust that people need from private companies.

Review: Pyodide (Python in the Browser)

Although I'm not experienced in Python (at this point), I continue to keep watch on the advances the Python community is making. Like staff data engineer Mike Droettboom says, "a standard Python interpreter that runs entirely in the browser" will dramatically improve the game of data computation on the web.

Read Article

https://venturebeat.com/2019/04/16/mozilla-details-pyodide-a-project-that-aims-to-bring-python-to-web-browsers/

In-Depth Article by Mozilla

https://hacks.mozilla.org/2019/04/pyodide-bringing-the-scientific-python-stack-to-the-browser/

Other like-tools

Existing projects trying to address the current data engineering problems with the browser:

1. Transcrypt
2. Brython
3. Skulpt
4. PyPyJs

Review: Mickey D's purchase of DynamicYield

"An important part is to figure how to leverage the “personalization” part of a personalization engine." - Fatema Patrawala of PacktHub

As a fast food customer, I have noticed the struggles of the fast food restaurants to keep up with the increasing pace of customer demands meanwhile managing with less workers (due to many reasons especially around the minimum wage given and the labor demand of serving food to "hangry" people). With mobile apps like UberEats (where people can order food from a list of restaurants), InstaCart (where people can order groceries), and LevelUp (where people can order food for quick pickup), the way people order food and groceries is changing significantly. The food industry that reacts to this demand where people want to leverage technology for faster service and personalization will continue to stay in business. Those that don't keep up with the demand, well, they will eventually shutdown or hopefully become acquired.

 This article highlights some great points about the change coming to the fast food industry and McDonald's most recent acquisition to adapt to customer demands.

Read Article

https://hub.packtpub.com/why-did-mcdonalds-acqui-hire-300-million-machine-learning-startup-dynamic-yield/

We’re excited to announce that we have entered into an agreement to acquire @DynamicYield, a leader in personalization and decision logic technology, to make experiences in our restaurants even more personal: https://t.co/mmVzyMqC3D pic.twitter.com/v4F4luL1TW

— McDonald's Corporation (@McDonaldsCorp) March 25, 2019

The sooner these fast food chains leverage technology into their businesses to personalize food services to the demands of society, the better. As for the employees - well, it's sort of like what happened to factory workers. Not to sound insensitive, they will need to learn how to make the technology, learn to manage the technology, or think about another occupation.

Enjoy your Happy Meal!