Disruptive SSD Set to Debut in 2016

Intel and Micron's new Optane™ SSD 3-dimensional memory technology is on-track to debut starting in 2016. This looks to be a disruptive technology in the non-volatile storage market. Could the end of mechanical hard drives be near? If the reliability is there, quite possibly!

Intro to Amazon DynamoDB

This article presents a nice intro to Amazon DynamoDB. And, you'll also learn that "NoSQL" doesn't mean "Not SQL" but "Not Only SQL" :-D

Windows 10 Pro SP 1511 upgrade warning

Heads up! If you have the built-in Administrator account enabled, make sure you add a standard account on the PC to the Administrators group before upgrading to Windows Service Pack 1511 (Build 10586.318). The SP doesn't respect the existing Administrator account status, and resets it to the default of "disabled", potentially locking you out of Administrative access to the PC! However, if you have another account added to the Administrators group beforehand, you can correct this after the fact. But if not, you are up the proverbial creek! This only applies to Windows 10 Professional Edition, not the Home Edition, which has no built-in Administrator account anyway.

Note: I've heard it said that it may be possible to boot into Safe Mode and logon as Administrator that way, regardless of whether the account's disabled or not, but I haven't personally tried it out to confirm.

New approaches to Unified Network Management

I've noticed a recent trend among wireless equipment companies to provide both cloud-based and premises-based management mechanisms for campus wireless networks. There are advantages and disadvantages to both; cloud offering "easy management from anywhere" and easy scaling and support, on-premises providing direct control to the network should cloud access drop or become otherwise unavailable.

Now, Netgear has taken the bull by the horns and is offering networking management that will use whatever model, or combination of models, the customer prefers. They obviously "get it!" I expect to see more vendors moving in this direction, too.

Upgrading to Windows 10? View this first!

If you'll be doing an on-line upgrade to Windows 10, make sure you view this video produced by the Mozilla team with tips on how to configure Win 10 to protect your privacy, reduce unnecessary use of system resources, and to specify which default apps and services you prefer.

The evolution of human-machine interaction

Anyone who's used a mouse & keyboard for over a decade knows that this method of human-machine interaction is growing more clunky and burdensome with each passing year. It's only a matter of time before better (or at least complementary) systems emerge, sort of like when drawing tablets, handwriting / speech detection, and optical character recognition systems first appeared on the scene.

So what will the future of human-machine interaction (HMI) look like?

We already have some possible prognostications available. Wearable Tech being one (e.g., Google Glass and Apple Watch), and gesture-based technology being another. And given that the Big G and the Big A are researching, investing in, and developing both, it's not a stretch to conclude that we will see both emerging alongside conventional keyboard & mouse interaction soon.

Other technologies that will likely influence HMI refinement: Natural Language recognition (speech) and immersive Virtual Reality (VR).

Meshed up

Here's an interesting article about the development of low-power wide area networks for monitoring water conservation and facilitating irrigation management. I just hope they don't directly feed it back to the grid controllers, since if someone or something hacks it, it could literally unleash a flood - not to mention wasting valuable water on a grand scale.

Net fragged!

I've invented a new term, "Net fragged".

There's a site for this, and a site for that. And now, there's a site for that, too! I can't even remember where I bookmarked that site I was doing something on last month?! Sheesh. Net fragged!
 
You heard it here, first :-)

New Programming Paradigms

Functional Programming and Reactive Programming are new paradigms that are taking the software community by storm. The use of functional programming languages such as Scala have moved well beyond "research only" circles within the academic community to growing adoption for special tasks in industry.  Functional programming techniques and languages are sort of like "a new wave" following Object Oriented Programming (although the two paradigms are complementary, not competitive).

Use rsync on Linux/Mac to move data fast

Here's how to use rsync(1) on a Mac or Linux to move data fast:

rsync –achv[n] {local-dir} {remote-hostname}:{remote-dir}

This will sync the contents of {local-dir} to remote-hostname, {remote-dir}. If you supply the –n option (noted in the square brackets above), it will do a *dry-run only* showing you what will be done – but not yet doing it (very handy to confirm you will be copying the desired stuff to the desired remote location first).

Works for git clones, and any other directories, too. If you want to delete files that exist on {remote-dir} but not {local-dir}, add the delete-after parameter (with two leading dashes), like this:

rsync –achv[n] —delete-after {local-dir} {remote-hostname}:{remote-dir}

Transfers are generally done over ssh, so you’ll have to supply your password when prompted for it.

Rsync can pull as well as push, meaning you can reverse the positions of {local-dir} and {remote-hostname}:{remote-dir}, too. You can even use it to copy files to a different location on the local host if desired, too. Plus it’s very efficient at moving data quickly :-)

2014 Disruptors from CNBC

Some interesting and disruptive companies profiled in this CNBC article.

BioVR

This is amazing!

"The most complex machine ever constructed by humankind"

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is gearing up for a new research phase in the new year. What secrets will be revealed about particle physics and the structure of the universe as we know it? Stay tuned, the next three years are likely to be ground-breaking!

The Memristor - Putting Moore's law back on track

Haven't heard much at large from HP Labs until this, which I heard Meg Whitman reference several times in a recent talk she gave. Likely this puts the AI evolutionary curve back on track, perhaps making the extrapolation discussed in Louis Del Monte's book increasingly plausible :-)

The Singularity is only 30 years away, are you ready?

Many futurists predict the singularity is only 30 years away. For sure, there will be far more change in the next 40 years than in the previous to date. I sure hope the AIs, soon to be with us, choose to prefer Asimov's three laws more than "SkyNet" or "the Matrix". As discussed in a recent article, physicist and author Louis Del Monte speculates that they will surpass, and eventually become annoyed with us (yikes!) I've picked up a copy and started reading Del Monte's book to learn more about his perspective.

Happy Father's Day!

For all the Star Wars Homies out there, Happy Father's Day!

Integrated or Independent QA?

A friend at work forwarded this article to me after a lunch time discussion about QA testing, and whether it should be integrated within the development team activities or operate as an independent effort.

The author's viewpoint is that there is value in a separate team and effort.

I think there’s a parallel to scientific method, too, which makes QA as a separate process valuable. Review by a different team, that corroborates readiness through their own effort, is important for overall confidence, too. Not to say that’s infallible, but it demonstrates an important watermark.

Signatures from the Big Bang

Pretty big stuff! Nine years of observations produce evidence that subliminal imprints of gravitational waves from the Big Bang are present in the free radiation of space, as Einstein predicted should be the case. Quantum Mechanics and General Relativity working at the same scale, possibly a step forward to a real Unified Theory.

Are we ready for the impact of robots?

The military is one front where disruptive technologies (such as the Internet itself) first appear and "proof of concept" is established. So, it's rather sobering to see how fast plans for deploying robotics in the military are progressing - likely starting with supply couriers.

In my opinion, it's just a matter of time before orchestrated platoons of robotic soldiers become feasible. There are already significant strides being made in environmental sensors and muscle emulation, which will help such units to integrate with human troops while becoming a real pain in the posterior for opposing forces.

Such platoons are scary. They might become sold and leveraged into essentially unassailable mercenary forces, highly efficient killing units, for better or worse. And, there is the approaching singularity where robots (and possibly AIs) will start building robots, too, making easy proliferation another challenge. Hmm, are Terminators and SkyNet on the eventual horizon? Let's hope not!