Monthly Archives: February 2020

BUFFALO, N.Y. Right now, we're at the cusp of a transportation revolution.

That's according to an organization called Congress for the New Urbanism.

Experts say there will be a widespread introduction of new transportation technology that could change the way cities operate.

If and when that happens, City of Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown wants to be ready.

"Our goal as a city is for this to be a community-driven process where we all work together in envisioning the kind of future that we want for our community," the mayor said.

On Saturday, representatives from organizations such as Congress for the New Urbanism and Stantec gathered in Buffalo to share recommendations for the city, in an effort to find solutions to an important question:

"What does Buffalo, a mid-size city, do to respond to this new wave of transportation technology?" said Brendan Mehaffy, the Executive Director of the City of Buffalo Office of Strategic Planning.

The event on Saturday came on the heels of a week-long workshop on the topic, looking into how Buffalo could adapt its existing streets, public spaces and buildings to accommodate things such as e-scooters and self-driving cars.

"There were national experts that came to Buffalo from across the country that looked at our unique transportation issues, mobility issues in Buffalo and gave us some ideas to consider for our future," Brown said.

Added Mehaffy: "One of the things that was shown was an autonomous vehicle shuttle. That is something that's already being tested at the University of Buffalo and that's something that we would like to test on city streets in the City of Buffalo. We recognize we need to designate probably a corridor for that, and we need to make sure that it's designed in such a way to support that technology."

He added, "That same corridor would also support a lot of the micro-mobility solutions that are out there right now with e-scooters."

Another concept brought up was possibly expanding on some of the technology resources that are already in use.

"The mayor has had great success with Buffalo Roamand our parking apps, and expanding those apps at this point it time, not just for parking but also for mass transit so people know exactly when a bus is coming," Mehaffy said.

Mehaffy explained this is a part of a larger discussion about growing Buffalo's economy in a very intentional way.

"This isn't just a conversation about transportation, but then also how we build the city around these new forms of transportation," he said.

Brown added, "We want the needs of the City of Buffalo ,and what's happening in the City of Buffalo, to help shape that national conversation."

Mayor Brown said the full report on the findings will be available in April.

Experts explained changes wouldn't be done overnight, but they do have an aggressive timeline to potentially get the ball rolling.

"In the next year, we'd like to work with the New York State legislature and others to get the permission to do this autonomous vehicle testing zone in the City of Buffalo, this mobility innovation zone in the City of Buffalo," Mehaffy said.

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Technology experts look into future of transportation in Buffalo - WGRZ.com

One of the seminal texts for anyone interested in technology and society is Melvin Kranzbergs Six Laws of Technology, the first of which says that technology is neither good nor bad; nor is it neutral. By this, Kranzberg meant that technologys interaction with society is such that technical developments frequently have environmental, social and human consequences that go far beyond the immediate purposes of the technical devices and practices themselves, and the same technology can have quite different results when introduced into different contexts or under different circumstances.

The saloon-bar version of this is that technology is both good and bad; it all depends on how its used a tactic that tech evangelists regularly deploy as a way of stopping the conversation. So a better way of using Kranzbergs law is to ask a simple Latin question: Cui bono? who benefits from any proposed or hyped technology? And, by implication, who loses?

With any general-purpose technology which is what the internet has become the answer is going to be complicated: various groups, societies, sectors, maybe even continents win and lose, so in the end the question comes down to: who benefits most? For the internet as a whole, its too early to say. But when we focus on a particular digital technology, then things become a bit clearer.

A case in point is the technology known as machine learning, a manifestation of artificial intelligence that is the tech obsession de nos jours. Its really a combination of algorithms that are trained on big data, ie huge datasets. In principle, anyone with the computational skills to use freely available software tools such as TensorFlow could do machine learning. But in practice they cant because they dont have access to the massive data needed to train their algorithms.

This means the outfits where most of the leading machine-learning research is being done are a small number of tech giants especially Google, Facebook and Amazon which have accumulated colossal silos of behavioural data over the last two decades. Since they have come to dominate the technology, the Kranzberg question who benefits? is easy to answer: they do. Machine learning now drives everything in those businesses personalisation of services, recommendations, precisely targeted advertising, behavioural prediction For them, AI (by which they mostly mean machine learning) is everywhere. And it is making them the most profitable enterprises in the history of capitalism.

As a consequence, a powerful technology with great potential for good is at the moment deployed mainly for privatised gain. In the process, it has been characterised by unregulated premature deployment, algorithmic bias, reinforcing inequality, undermining democratic processes and boosting covert surveillance to toxic levels. That it doesnt have to be like this was vividly demonstrated last week with a report in the leading biological journal Cell of an extraordinary project, which harnessed machine learning in the public (as compared to the private) interest. The researchers used the technology to tackle the problem of bacterial resistance to conventional antibiotics a problem that is rising dramatically worldwide, with predictions that, without a solution, resistant infections could kill 10 million people a year by 2050.

The team of MIT and Harvard researchers built a neural network (an algorithm inspired by the brains architecture) and trained it to spot molecules that inhibit the growth of the Escherichia coli bacterium using a dataset of 2,335 molecules for which the antibacterial activity was known including a library of 300 existing approved antibiotics and 800 natural products from plant, animal and microbial sources. They then asked the network to predict which would be effective against E coli but looked different from conventional antibiotics. This produced a hundred candidates for physical testing and led to one (which they named halicin after the HAL 9000 computer from 2001: A Space Odyssey) that was active against a wide spectrum of pathogens notably including two that are totally resistant to current antibiotics and are therefore a looming nightmare for hospitals worldwide.

There are a number of other examples of machine learning for public good rather than private gain. One thinks, for example, of the collaboration between Google DeepMind and Moorfields eye hospital. But this new example is the most spectacular to date because it goes beyond augmenting human screening capabilities to aiding the process of discovery. So while the main beneficiaries of machine learning for, say, a toxic technology like facial recognition are mostly authoritarian political regimes and a range of untrustworthy or unsavoury private companies, the beneficiaries of the technology as an aid to scientific discovery could be humanity as a species. The technology, in other words, is both good and bad. Kranzbergs first law rules OK.

Every cloud Zeynep Tufekci has written a perceptive essay for the Atlantic about how the coronavirus revealed authoritarianisms fatal flaw.

EU ideas explained Politico writers Laura Kayali, Melissa Heikkil and Janosch Delcker have delivered a shrewd analysis of the underlying strategy behind recent policy documents from the EU dealing with the digital future.

On the nature of loss Jill Lepore has written a knockout piece for the New Yorker under the heading The lingering of loss, on friendship, grief and remembrance. One of the best things Ive read in years.

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How artificial intelligence outsmarted the superbugs - The Guardian

Rochester Institute of Technology recently received new electronics assembly equipment for its Center for Electronics and Manufacturing Assembly (CEMA). The university installed a DEK NeoHorizen printing machine, used by electronics manufacturers to precisely place transistors onto electronic circuit boards.

The equipment will be used for teaching, faculty research and corporate R&D through an expanded partnership between RIT and ASM Assembly Systems. As part of the partnership, the two organizations are advancing production processes and operations to meet the demands of the evolving manufacturing industry. Research by CEMA and ASM, the international electronics manufacturing organization, is underway into advancing this critical step in assembling the mechanical components of devices such as smart phones.

ASM is interested in is the adoption of very small components in advanced products. These devices have incredibly small transistors (resistors and capacitors) that are hard to see with the naked eye, therefore it requires advanced equipment to be able to assemble with them, said Martin Anselm, director of CEMA. This print machine is one used in industry today, and it allows for more control and for more advanced products to be manufactured.

Anselm, who is also a faculty-researcher in RITs College of Engineering Technology, has been working with the company on projects relating to the increase in miniaturized components being added to circuit boards and the need for greater battery storage capacity.

One way cell phones increase their battery life is to make more space for the battery. The more we can put electronics into a smaller factor, the more internal volume we have for the battery. The smaller we make the circuit board, the more capability the product has, he said, referring to the dense space between the circuitry.

CEMA was established at RIT in 1995 and provides workforce training, development, prototype testing and research for the electronics manufacturing and packaging industry. Its corporate partners represent companies locally and nationally.

In 2017, RIT expanded its long-time collaboration with ASM, increasing CEMAs capabilities in electronic manufacturing.The new equipment, valued at nearly $250,000, will further RITs overall contributions to AIM Photonics, specifically in the area of next-generation electronics devices and packaging, positioning both organizations to contribute to the growing industry.

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New surface mount technology equipment added to RIT's Center for Electronics Manufacturing and Assembly - RIT University News Services

A growing number of current and former Sox players who were with the team that season have already said they dont expect much will be found.

A larger question, one that Clark and his staff have been discussing with players as they tour spring training camps, is how much of a role technology should play in the game beyond the outsized influence it already wields.

The Astros cheating scandal that has roiled the sport is a byproduct, however unintentional, of baseballs embrace of high tech.

Under former general manager Jeff Luhnow, the Astros used data to change how they scouted, developed, and utilized players. Scouts were fired in favor of making decisions purely on the numbers. High-speed cameras and remote monitoring replaced boots on the ground.

Emotion was taken out of the equation.

That a large group of Astros players was comfortable using live video to be more efficient at stealing signs shouldnt have come as much of a surprise. They played for an organization that apparently was lacking a moral compass from the top down.

Weve seen technology boom in a way that our industry never has here in the last 10 years, Clark said. The culture that its created, and thats been allowed to be created left unchecked, is manifesting itself in ways that a number of us had concerns about, were interested in talking about, and now we found ourselves on the doorstep of what I hope are those exact conversations.

Clark and commissioner Rob Manfred are discussing how best to limit the access players have to live video during games, and those rules are expected to be in place for Opening Day.

My suggestion a few weeks ago was to ban it entirely during games. MLB may not go that far, but there certainly will be much tighter restrictions.

The changes that we anticipate making and working on with the league, we hope it lends itself to there not being a conversation about sign stealing moving forward, Clark said.

But Clarks concerns, and those of many players, go beyond sign stealing.

Baseball clearly needed a replay system to correct egregiously blown calls, but now games are delayed to determine whether a base runners leg came ever so slightly off the bag while a glove was on him.

Managers also ask for calls to be reviewed late in games for no good reason other than that they have a challenge left.

That wasnt the spirit of the rule when it was implemented.

From the unions perspective, technology also is changing how players are paid. Pitchers are prized for their spin rate and batters for exit velocity, metrics that couldnt be measured until a few years ago.

Statistical analytics were a better way to parse the results, but they never damaged the product on the field. If anything, they helped make it more interesting because we could better understand the value of players.

But the technology revolution has changed the game, creating a generation of young hitters consumed with getting the ball in the air and pitchers who value velocity far more than creativity.

A series of strikeouts interrupted by an occasional home run isnt particularly enjoyable. Strikeouts have increased by 14.4 percent in the last five years.

Managers certainly arent powerless in all of this. But their job is increasingly focused on maintaining clubhouse harmony while the analytics staff prepares game plans.

Any manager who resists the data wont be around for long.

I think our entire industry has been affected by technology and the atmosphere and considerations around efficiency, Clark said. I think it has been on and off the field affected in a way thats not necessarily beneficial to anybody.

The Red Sox, as an example, use portable devices to monitor every bullpen session and batting-practice swing. Thats smart; they should know everything they can about their players.

In theory, that information is used to improve performance. But its also used as a tool to determine a players physical ability and, in turn, his value. Should the players and the representatives have access to that information?

These issues will all be part of the discussions for the next collective bargaining agreement.

I think it spans every aspect of our industry, Clark said.

Sign stealing can be fixed by turning off some monitors. How baseball gets fixed, or at least improved, wont be as easy.

Peter Abraham can be reached at pabraham@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @PeteAbe.

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Technologys effect on baseball is a huge concern for MLBPA head Tony Clark - The Boston Globe

Anyone who uses the cut, copy and paste commands on their computer or mobile device has Larry Tesler to thank for making them so simple and easy to use.

Tesler, who has died aged 74, began his work on cut, copy and paste in 1973, when he was hired by Xeroxs Palo Alto Research Center (Parc) in California. Among other things he worked with a fellow computer scientist, Tim Mott, on the development of Gypsy, a modeless word processor. At the time most software had modes: for example, you might press I to enter the insert mode, or R for the replace mode. But Teslers research showed that non-expert users found modes confusing and so he began to fight against them. He had Nomodes as his car numberplate and, later, a website at nomodes.com.

Although Tesler did not actually invent the basic functions of cut, copy and paste, he did come up with the names, keystroke combinations (Ctrl-X, Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V) and definitions for a simpler, modeless regime that became universal. As such he was happy to describe himself as the primary inventor of modeless editing and cut, copy, paste. It was a proud achievement, for his invention seems likely to survive for as long as there are real or virtual keyboards.

Tesler was also known for demonstrating Parcs graphical user interface to Apples co-founder, Steve Jobs. In computer mythology this is said to have inspired the creation of the Apple Lisa and Macintosh computers in the early 1980s. Later, when working at Apple, he also played a significant role in the commercial success of the ARM (Acorn Risc Machine) processor, which today powers the vast majority of smartphones and tablets.

Tesler was born in New York, to Isidore Tesler, an anaesthetist, and his wife, Muriel (nee Krechman). While attending the Bronx high school of science in the early 60s, he came up with an algorithm for generating prime numbers. A teacher told him it could be implemented on a computer, and found him a machine language manual for the IBM 650 mainframe. When given time on an IBM 650 at Columbia University half an hour every other Saturday he tried to run his algorithm from a deck of punched cards, but the computer was too difficult to use. It was a problem he would spend the rest of his life trying to mitigate.

After school Tesler went to Stanford University in Palo Alto, mainly to get away from his parents. They were kind of constraining and over-controlling and I was just too free-spirited for that, he said. It turned out to be a brilliant decision. Silicon Valley was propagating a new computer industry and an anti-war counterculture.

Tesler threw himself into both. He was soon being paid to write software for various university departments, and set up a successful consulting company. After he graduated with a maths degree in 1965, his clients included two of the most important organisations in the area: the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Lab, where he wrote Pub, a text-based publishing system, and the Stanford Research Institute, where Doug Engelbart invented the mouse.

Just when everything seemed to be going well, however, the US economy went into recession and business dried up. Tesler was now, after a short marriage that ended in divorce, a single parent with a daughter, Lisa. He did the countercultural thing, dropping out to live in a commune in rural Oregon.

In 1970 Xerox had founded Parc in his old Palo Alto stomping ground. They had been recommended to hire him, but could not find him. When they did, he was the first person ever to turn them down I was insulted by the amount of the offer, he said and it was not until 1973 that Tesler joined them to work with Mott on the development of a modeless word processor. Thereafter his work on cut, copy and paste brought the concept into the mainstream.

Parcs researchers also created the first modern computing system with a graphical user interface, icons, a mouse, laser printer and ethernet networking. However, Xerox knew they would never be able to turn these high-priced workstations into mass-market products. That is why they wanted to work with Apple. But when Tesler made his presentation, Jobs and his staff at Apple asked such smart questions that he decided to leave Parc to join the upstart computer company. He served in many positions at Apple from 1980 to 1997, rising to be chief scientist.

In computing circles he was well known for his role in helping to progress the ARM processor from local curiosity to global ubiquity. He had been running Apples advanced technology research group when, in 1990, he was asked to take over the companys beleaguered Newton project. Some people saw small, pen-operated personal digital assistants as the next big thing, and the Newton was Apples version. Unfortunately it was too big, too slow, too expensive, and looked as if it would never be finished.

Tesler decided that Apple needed a powerful but cheap and battery-friendly processor to make the Newton a viable commercial proposition.He found one in the ARM, which had been developed by Acorn in Cambridge for its Archimedes computer. Apple felt it could not rely on a small British supplier for such an important part, so Tesler set up a three-way joint venture company with Acorn and Acorns chip manufacturer, VLSI Technology, to develop and license it.

Tesler was a board director of ARM Ltd when it was founded in 1990, then of ARM Holdings plc until 2004. The Newton flopped and Jobs killed it in 1997, but ARM went from strength to strength.

Not everything that Tesler touched turned to gold. One of his final tasks before leaving Apple was to shut down its advanced technology group and kill off any projects that the company could no longer afford. As part of that process he hived off an Apple educational program, Stagecast Creator, which could be used to teach children a kind of programming, into a start-up business, Stagecast, in which he invested heavily and took on the role of president. The venture was a failure, and he lost a lot of money as a result, which forced him to take on various jobs including with Amazon, Yahoo and 23andMe which focused on user experience and interface design. Eventually he became what he called a semi-retired consultant.

In an industry where screaming at people used to pass for entrepreneurial zeal, Tesler stood out by being humble and unfailingly nice. When he visited me at the Guardian in the late 1990s to talk about ARM, for example, he did not arrive in a limo, did not bring any flunkies, and did not lay down any terms or conditions. He just turned up on time, had a coffee in the canteen, and later let me walk him to the tube. If he had been less nice, then he would not have spent so much of his career sorting out other peoples messes. But then he also would not be remembered so fondly by so many people.

He is survived by Lisa, by his second wife, the geophysicist Colleen Barton, and by his brothers, Charles and Alan.

Lawrence Gordon Tesler, computer scientist, born 24 April 1945; died 16 February 2020

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Larry Tesler obituary - The Guardian

Amazing team building activities can bring team members together by collaborating and encouraging teamwork. Having fun at work will boost productivity to enhance the teams loyalty. Here is gaming with artificial intelligence technology in 2020.

Using team-building activities promotes exploration and opportunities instead of having your employees retreating. Also, any time you play together, it motivates your team to build better communication, a deeper discussion of plans, problem-solving AI tech techniques, and powerful solutions.

Just imagine getting up in the morning and anticipating having fun at work. Anticipation will automatically encourage you to get up for work happily. Wanting to go to work can become a reality by bringing laughter and happiness to the office. Bringing in activities will de-stress your team.

Indoor activities provide amazing team-building opportunities, improves workplace tasks, and develop positive work culture. These activities are vital for boosting performance.

Team collaboration is important because each team member has a different point of view to reach a teams collective potential. It also helps in increasing the morale of team members.

There are so many interesting indoor activities that would help to infuse fun and creativity in tasks to increase the progress of the organization.

Business needs indoor activities for responsive and meaningful communications which will allow the employees to think out of the box, and to recharge and refresh them.

These activities will automatically boost the morale of an employee. For successful team building, comfort in the workplace is necessary.

To enhance team performance there should be healthy competition between team members. Competition increases productivity in a positive way. You can encourage the team by providing incentives to make them motivated.

One of the best team-building strategies is to perform indoor activities which outcomes in better work progress by improving communication.

It is not mandatory to do all work activities formally, Informal activities should also be conducted to uplift the teams spirit and remind their values to their team leads. There can be following indoor activities for amazing team building.

This type of activity will allow the team member to solve a puzzle or mystery with the help of clues to increase their collaboration.

It will be used to test the level of trust among team members. Talking in circles is a better way of communication and team collaboration.

It is the best secret revealing game in which team members will come to know the hidden truths of their colleagues.

This game will help in guessing each others birthdays by allowing participants to rearrange their line in order of their birthdays.

They should also arrange a surprise party for each team member on their birthday.

It is another interesting game to play with your colleagues. It will bring your team together in an immersive environment.

Truth or lie is also an interesting game to know each other for the first time.

A very popular game to have fun in the workplace and to know other creative minds and acting skills.

It is very important to celebrate little team achievements for motivation. There are manyteam building activities for motivation and enhancing collaboration. Check your local listings and find something worthwhile and fun.

A team can also decorate a workplace, during decoration, they will communicate with each other to know each other ideas and creative skills. For decorating, a team can use bright colors, flowers, funny photos and interesting quotes. They can also create art together by letting each member participate in that art piece.

To celebrate important achievements, goals or milestones, a team can have pizza or ice cream socials.

One can also write a letter of appreciation to an employee to let them know the significant things they have done in improving the company standards.

Setting up a talent show in a game room can allow employees to open up their talents, whether its singing a song or playing an instrument or any other hidden talent. A talent show will be a team-building component because the employees will collaborate to organize the event.

Many informal activities can take place in workplaces such as short celebrations, dinner parties for teamwork appreciation, learning sessions for their self-development, providing a bonus for an excellent job to encourage team members.

A wall of fame should be designed in one of the office walls, where the team lead will put the awards for team members to appreciate them. They can also introduce the thank you notes for the employee of the week to encourage their hard work.

Hang up a complaint box in a central area of the office and allow the team to elaborate on their needs and problems they are facing during work out Artificial intelligence gaming trends.

Following are the rules for an amazing team-building:

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Following are the ways to motivate the team:

We have organized many team building activities in Dubai for an amazing team experience by engaging them to work together and take care of each others backs.

There are many other fun indoor activities in your area. You can find: breaking things in the smash room and bowling. These indoor activities bring long-lasting effects in organizations nowadays for VR Games.

To communicate openly is the key to building a good relationship in a team. Fun Indoor activities can build a strong team and allow employees to get to know each other in a better way.

Knowing each others interests, strengths and weaknesses can encourage each team member to contribute during meetings. So we should organize fun, engaging team activities to enhance the work performance of the organization.

Nabeel Al Ahmed, Digital Consultant Dubai SightseeingMoreover, several years experiences in Tech-savvy I always try to come up with new trends as being Communicator for tech-related topic especially in IOT, AI.

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Gaming with Artificial Intelligence Technology in 2020 - ReadWrite