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From
phys
MIT biological engineers have created a programming language that allows them to rapidly design complex, DNA-encoded circuits that give new functions to living cells. 
Numalis's curator insight,
April 22, 2016 2:28 AM
Biology merging with computer science would bring a brand new domain to explore. And so many questions to answer: What are the limits of such systems? How to ensure they will do what they are supposed to do properly? Could we replace all the analogic sensors by biological sensors? But more importantly how to validate these systems and turn them off if something goes wrong?
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The Technology Radar is our thoughts on emerging technology trends in the industry. Read the latest here.
Farid Mheir's insight:
I pride myself on being "techno friendly" and futuristic, an early adopter of all things technological and digital. Then I receive the ToughtWorks technology radar and realize I know none of the solutions on the radar. Then I say: time to get to work and learn about these things. And you should too.
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From
qz
Broadly speaking, there are two main approaches to creating an ethical robot. The first is to decide on a specific ethical law (maximize happiness, for example), write a code for such a law, and create a robot that strictly follows the code. But the difficulty here is deciding on the appropriate ethical rule. Every moral law, even the seemingly simple one above, has a myriad of exceptions and counter examples. For example, should a robot maximize happiness by harvesting the organs from one man to save five?
Farid Mheir's insight:
After the Microsoft chatbot Tay became racist and was forced to be turned off, the question of how to make robots ethical resurfaced. This article reviews why it is important for robots to be moral and ethical and what it means.
With a future composed of medical robots and self-driving cars, this question will become essential and we may have to choose digital solutions based on how they react under certain edge use cases.
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This is the second and concluding part of the earlier post where we presented a “Internet of Things” project idea around tracking kitchen food inventory. We discussed the benefits and use cases of this application from a restaurant’s point of view and presented a gist of the the project setup and components. Now it’s time to discuss the detailed hardware, software setup and the complete functionality of the system. More...
Farid Mheir's insight:
A very geeky weekend project that has a multitude of real-world applications in manufacturing, distribution, logistics, etc. IBm describes how they have designed and built a food pantry inventory tracking system based on internet of things tools and solutions.
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From
a16z
In this update of his past presentations on Mobile Eating the World — delivered most recently at The Guardian’s Changing Media Summit — a16z’s Benedict Evans takes us through how technology is universal through mobile. How mobile is not a subset of the internet anymore. And how mobile (and accompanying trends of cloud and AI) is also driving new productivity tools.
In fact, mobile — which encompasses everything from drones to cars — is everything.
Farid Mheir's insight:
If anyone still doubts mobile is a revolution and is everywhere then this 76 slide presentation should convince you. For others like me, this is chock full of amazing insight and data. Make every manager and executive you know read this.
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Take a moment to watch a stretchy robot test its octopus-inspired skin.
Farid Mheir's insight:
Wearables will indeed required better adapted electronics and batteries. Here is one kind that may make it to producton in the near future.
Ty Garibay's curator insight,
April 5, 2016 9:06 AM
Wearables will indeed required better adapted electronics and batteries. Here is one kind that may make it to producton in the near future.
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From
vimeo
Aggregating work that demonstrates the creative potential in the use of technology.
Farid Mheir's insight:
Video has become a useful tool in our digital lives and this vimeo channel curates the best ones as they relate to technology in general, digital technology very often being highlighted. A nice reference to browse for ideas and new subject matter.
DA CHRIS's curator insight,
April 1, 2016 10:48 AM
Video has become a useful tool in our digital lives and this vimeo channel curates the best ones as they relate to technology in general, digital technology very often being highlighted. A nice reference to browse for ideas and new subject matter.
DA CHRIS's curator insight,
April 1, 2016 10:53 AM
Video has become a useful tool in our digital lives and this vimeo channel curates the best ones as they relate to technology in general, digital technology very often being highlighted. A nice reference to browse for ideas and new subject matter. 
John Dilworth's curator insight,
April 3, 2016 3:48 PM
Video has become a useful tool in our digital lives and this vimeo channel curates the best ones as they relate to technology in general, digital technology very often being highlighted. A nice reference to browse for ideas and new subject matter.
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What's most intriguing about the Nest Thermostat is how it's become the center of a connected home ecosystem.
Farid Mheir's insight:
Google acquired Nest, the manufacturer of smart thermostats. Its "Works with Nest" initiative has defined a solution that can soon see Google in charge of your whole home automation.
This is a good thing as smart devices should be connected and the possibilities that this networking offers are amazing (see the other articles for certain use cases that will soon be possible).
As with other Internet of Things improvements, security and information privacy must be front and center.
See also http://www.appcessories.co.uk/works-with-nest-best-compatible-devices/ http://www.wired.com/2015/10/nest-embraces-good-ol-yale-locks-make-smart-homes-smarter/
Buzzy Bee's curator insight,
March 31, 2016 4:22 PM
Google acquired Nest, the manufacturer of smart thermostats. Its "Works with Nest" initiative has defined a solution that can soon see Google in charge of your whole home automation.
This is a good thing as smart devices should be connected and the possibilities that this networking offers are amazing (see the other articles for certain use cases that will soon be possible).
As with other Internet of Things improvements, security and information privacy must be front and center.
See also http://www.appcessories.co.uk/works-with-nest-best-compatible-devices/ http://www.wired.com/2015/10/nest-embraces-good-ol-yale-locks-make-smart-homes-smarter/
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IBM has created a 'consensus algorithm' to help with decision-making, as well as smart contracts templates that can be coded in Java or Gola.
Farid Mheir's insight:
More information about blockchain, which now appears to be a revolution in many fields including Finance. With IBM open sourcing code that provides the raw ingredient for any company to create its own solution. This is something we should all become aware of and know as it will most likely be at the heart of many transactions in the future, not just monetary ones.
Olivier Domy's curator insight,
March 24, 2016 7:30 AM
More information about blockchain, which now appears to be a revolution in many fields including Finance. With IBM open sourcing code that provides the raw ingredient for any company to create its own solution. This is something we should all become aware of and know as it will most likely be at the heart of many transactions in the future, not just monetary ones.
Buzzy Bee's curator insight,
March 31, 2016 4:32 PM
More information about blockchain, which now appears to be a revolution in many fields including Finance. With IBM open sourcing code that provides the raw ingredient for any company to create its own solution. This is something we should all become aware of and know as it will most likely be at the heart of many transactions in the future, not just monetary ones.
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Tracking is the foundation of great virtual reality. Knowing the position and orientation of the user’s head is essential to being able to move the
Farid Mheir's insight:
A great article on how this engineer is working on laser tracking device. Having myself been involved with 3D target tracking using a pair of CCD cameras and a PC - with computing done in assembler, as this was circa 1986 (!) - I can relate to the work they are doing and the challenges they face.
Being a microelectronics egineer as well, I am well aware of those silicon based mirrors they are using and their potential. Called micromirrors and invented in 1987, they have been around for a while and I am surprised they have not been put to use in the VR industry yet.
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Tech is one of the most challenging industries to keep up to date with. So to help, we’ve put together a list of the best technology websites out there. Via TechinBiz
Farid Mheir's insight:
Useful list of reference websites for technology professionals.
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Farid Mheir's insight:
Marketing automation field has been expoding in past few years, testimony to the fact that marketing groups have been pushing the digital transformation the most in organizations. This report provides some useful hints as to the tools that now equip the marketing teams - or should in the near future.
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George Hotz, the first person to hack the iPhone, says he built a self-driving car in a month. How did he do it? Bloomberg's Ashlee Vance went to Hotz'
Farid Mheir's insight:
Companion post to my previous one here: http://sco.lt/7c2fS5
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The nation's hacker-in-chief took up the ironic task at the Enigma Conference in San Francisco. “We put the time in …to know [that network] better than the people who designed it and the people who are securing it,” he said. “You know the technologies you intended to use in that network. We know the technologies that are actually in use in that network. Subtle difference. You’d be surprised about the things that are running on a network vs. the things that you think are supposed to be there.”
Farid Mheir's insight:
Excellent article and video from NSA chief on hacking network security. Hackers will spend the time to understand a network and its vulnerabilities. Something most companies don't. And I believe it. Security, to be effective, requires a lot of time and effort, which most companies are not willing to invest - because it is for prevention and thus may appear to be an unnecessary cost if there are no security breaches! Moreover, applying the security best practices that are presented here mean that access to network is difficult, requires special tools and software, prevents users from bringing their devices to work, etc. So it is actually very annoying for users to have secure networks. Thus, users will find ways to bypass it by using cloud solutions or installing shadow IT solutions. If you feel technically inclined and want to investigate further, read wikipedia entry on packet injection and head out to airpwn for a simple tool that will make you never trust an open wifi connection (Startbucks free wifi anyone) in the future... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Packet_injection http://airpwn.sourceforge.net/Airpwn.html Credits to La Sphere, Radio Canada's very good weekly show on all things web and digital.
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Brookwood Middle School in Vance, Ala., is placing beacons throughout its school and the community to better communicate with student and parents.
Farid Mheir's insight:
Describes a high school in the US that has deployed 15 beacons on its premise and what they are used for.
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The LazyWeb Show is a recap of the past week’s current events on the web platform.
Farid Mheir's insight:
Lazy web was a great 12 episode youtube show that described recent developer news. Even though it has stopped it is a great reference, worth listening to today.
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Farid Mheir's insight:
This website proposes use cases for beacons, from restaurant push notifications, parking meter interaction and connected devices. Other cookbooks are also presented here: Google announced "the physical web" project months ago as an open source project. Checkout the pages with tons of examples and more info about how to build them.
Google also recently has announced it will support it natively in Android Chrome, making discovery of beacons much easier as it won't require any new app to be installed - assuming Chrome is on every device. http://blog.chromium.org/2016/02/the-physical-web-expands-to-chrome-for_10.html With the rise of IoT, we can expect more of these in the future. However given the lukewarm reception of QR codes or Apple iBeacons, we can question their real-world adoption rate - even though they are builtin to millions of iPhone and iPad iOS devices the concept has not caught on it seems http://sco.lt/97shYP Yet there is a true need for physical devices to connect with our mobile devices so I expect new solutions to be proposed, with one catching on at some point in time.
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In a tech startup industry that loves its shiny new objects, the term “Big Data” is in the unenviable position of sounding increasingly “3 years ago”. While Hadoop was created in 2006, interest in the concept of “Big Data” reached fever pitch sometime between 2011 and 2014. This was the period when, at least in the press and on industry panels, Big Data was the new “black”, “gold” or “oil”. However, at least in my conversations with people in the industry, there’s an increasing sense of having reached some kind of plateau. 2015 was probably the year when the cool kids in the data world (to the extent there is such a thing) moved on to obsessing over AI and its many related concepts and flavors: machine intelligence, deep learning, etc.
Farid Mheir's insight:
A chart that shows the number of companies that offer products and services in the big data space.
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Want to make sure you back something up indefinitely? Then you could do worse than a new digital data storage technique that uses laser light to store 360 terabytes of information on nanostructured quartz for up to 14 billion years. Via THE OFFICIAL ANDREASCY
Farid Mheir's insight:
New technologies to store data remains as important as ever given we capture more and more of our real world information. the problem of permanent storage keeps being raised as we realize that floppy disks, tapes, CDs and DVDs will not provide long term storage - we are hoping for tens or hundreds of years when they actually may only keep them for a few years.
Sagar Bhardwaj's curator insight,
March 9, 2016 11:04 AM
New technologies to store data remains as important as ever given we capture more and more of our real world information. the problem of permanent storage keeps being raised as we realize that floppy disks, tapes, CDs and DVDs will not provide long term storage - we are hoping for tens or hundreds of years when they actually may only keep them for a few years.
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A Google software engineer has created his very own Android-powered smart mirror using nothing but off-the-shelf components.
Farid Mheir's insight:
Watch this video on the Loreal smart mirror that helps you determine the best makeup or hairdo in the morning. Or build a smart mirror as a weekend project running Android or Raspberry Pi machine.
Cool, very cool, can't wait to get my hand on these things in the future.
Katelm's curator insight,
February 16, 2016 7:18 AM
Watch this video on the Loreal smart mirror that helps you determine the best makeup or hairdo in the morning. Or build a smart mirror as a weekend project running Android or Raspberry Pi machine.
Cool, very cool, can't wait to get my hand on these things in the future.
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What could be cooler than a name like "Bosphorus Mechatronics?" How about a little box that lets you connect almost anything to anything including wireless..
Farid Mheir's insight:
I remember the 50-in-1 electronic kits that I played with when I was young. I also remember the breadboards we used in engineering school to learn and build our prototypes. nowadays, kids have many more choices, including this one. Jot this one down for christmas gift to a bright techno-geeky kid in your family...!
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Farid Mheir's insight:
Here's something to consider more and more: smart furniture. With internet of things, this is a trend that may pick up steam in the coming years. For now, still nice prototyping but no mass production AFAIK.
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Our brand new Deep Learning Course, a collaboration between Google and Udacity, will have you learning and mastering these techniques!
Farid Mheir's insight:
I wrote about TensorFlow when Google open sourced it. Great technology but only useful if you have the data to drive it. Now there is an online classe to learn how to use it. The future of product marketing: give the software and the training - because only few have the data to drive it!
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I had high hopes for Intel's original Compute Stick, but it ended up being a massive disappointment. Sure, it was cool to have a fully functional computer the s...
Farid Mheir's insight:
Computing is everywhere and a requirement for digital transformation. Here's the latest.
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We’re a few days into the new year and I’m sick of it already. This is fundamental web usability 101 stuff that plagues us all and makes our online life that much more painful than it needs to be. None of these practices – none of them – is ever met with “Oh how nice, this site is doing that thing”. Every one of these is absolutely driving the web into a dismal abyss of frustration and much ranting by all. And before anyone retorts with “Oh you can just install this do-whacky plugin which rewrites the page or changes the behaviour”, no, that’s entirely not the point. Not only does it not solve a bunch of the problems, it shouldn’t damn well have to! How about we all just agree to stop making the web a less enjoyable place and not do these things from the outset?
Farid Mheir's insight:
A great review of the most annoying website features that exist on the web today. Do you have those in your website? If you do, it may be time to reconsider...
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Curated by Farid Mheir
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Looks like software really is everywhere. Scientists have successfully used techniques from the microelectronics industry (verilog, silicon compilers) to codify and genetically modify bacteria to detect certain conditions such as e.coli viruses. Will the future of genetic engineering become energized as much as the microelectronics industry was when silicon compilers were introduced? I assume it will.