Terrifying LeakerLocker Ransomware Can Send Your Most Embarrassing Private Photos to Friends

New ransomware threat found- notorious for sending embarrassing photos to all friends

Ransomware threat doesn’t seem to end any soon. Security experts have found a new one which is notoriously designed to find the private photos of the victims and send it across all their contacts present in the address book. This particular threat has been discovered by a team of experts at the renowned cyber security firm McAfee and this virus has been named as LeakerLocker. This virus has the ability to lockdown the phone and threatens the victim of sending out the private images to all the numbers or addresses present on the phone.

£39 ransom for saving ‘grace’

Like any other ransomware this also has a similar modus operand wherein victim’s phone is locked and a ransom is asked for. In this case users are threatened with sending out the embarrassing photos unless the victim is willing to pay £38 to save his or her modesty. Most of the victims are most likely to pay the token amount in order to save them from humiliation but this is resulting in attackers laughing to the bank.

Earlier ransomware threats

Just a few months back a worldwide ransomware attack was launched which was called WannaCry and this virus is also the same one. WannaCry went on to bring the NHS right to its knees while quite recently McAfee security experts found a virus on the Google Play store which doesn’t really went all the way to encrypting the files but it was still evil in its working. This virus was found in two apps present on the Google Play Store namely “Booster & Cleaner Pro” and “Wallpapers Blur HD”.

However LeakerLocker kept itself below the security experts radar by settling with a really modest ransom. However it did go ahead with making a backup of the phone’s sensitive data and threatened to leak it all to the user’s contacts unless it demands are met which was just £38.

How bad is LeakerLocker?

Any phone infected with the LeakerLocker showcases a ransom threat on the screen which states that all the data present on the device would be sent out to ever person present in the phone contact list and email contact list. Victims are required to pay a modest ransom amount of $50 if they wish to abort this action. It even suggests that there is no other way of deleting the data from the device but it can be done through paying the ransom. If any victim tries to harm the phone or power off the device then it wouldn’t mean that the threat is avoided rather attackers has very smartly backed up all the data in cloud from where it can be sent to the copies email and contact list of the victim.

Security experts at McAfee has clarified that the claims in the form of threats made by this ransomware is not completely true. This virus is not capable enough to access, read or leak every data present in the phone device. But it is banking on the fear of private photos leaking onto every known person of the victim is enough to get $50 ransom easily out of the victims.

Darknet : Your Guide to the Badlands of the Internet

Darknet – Totally Diverse Being

If there tends to be something peculiar going on online, then the same could be taking place on the darknet such as hacked login details, cybersecurity exploits put up for hire and much more. In 2013, Target had been hacked and details of customer card had turned up on darknet marketplaces. Hackers had also attempted to do the same with login credential of Yahoo as well as details of O2 phone network customers in the UK.

One will find cybercriminals also selling security exploits. With the growth of bitcoin, the currency of choice on the darknet and unidentified payments seems to be much easier than before. A news enquiry in Australia had recently discovered that an unidentified darknet user had offered up access to the Medicare records of `any Australian’ for only 0.0089 bitcoin - $22, AU$30, £18. Europol has mentioned that the darknet together with the other peer-to-peer networks are yet the `main platform’ for the purpose of sharing child abuse material.

For users using Chrome or Safari to get online, the darknet is said to be a totally diverse being and how could it be diverse from the `surface web’ which we are aware of? What is it that users need to be aware of in advance should one intend to wade in?

`Darknet’ Not Same as `Deep Web’

We need to know that the darknet is not the same as the `deep web’, which is referred to any area of the internet which is not noticeable by search engine. However that does not mean that is suspicious and there are several other sites one would visit in their daily browsing which may fall in this classification. When a user tends to log in to internet banking, they are navigated to a particular location online and one that is not assisted in Google results.

The same could go for various pages which may tend to pop up in webmail services such as Gmail or educational databases on a university network. It seems to be complex in estimating presently how big the deep web could be though the generally cited research, (from 2001) has placed the deep web at 400 to 500 times the size of the `surface web’.

It is said that if the surface web could be the tip of the iceberg and the deep web, of what lies below the water, then the darknet would be what one would find deep in the blackest water beneath. The darknet itself is the network while the dark web the content which is served up on these networks.

Hidden Crime Bazaars

According to researcher Brian Krebs, it is here that one would find a type of open market which tends to pursue their trade in illegal wares, the hidden crime bazaars which can only be accessed through special software that obscures one’s true location online.

Last month the UN had observed that though the drug trafficking over the darknet seems to be comparatively uncertain, drug transaction has increased by 50% annually from September 2013 to January 2016. Moreover in early 2016, Loretta Lynch the then-US Attorney General had cautioned that some gun sales had been shifting to the dark web in order to stay beyond the reach of regulations.

 Here the main key is secrecy and whistle-blowers, activists together with political insurgents definitely tend to a valid reason to obscure their online location and post secrecy on the deep web as well as the darknet, though that level of secrecy has also been sought by the criminals.

Precise Software/Devoted Browser

This does not seem to be a matter of issues to `darknet.com’ and to spy one would need precise software together with a devoted browser. Most probably the Tor software and its dedicated Tor Browser are the most famous of these but there are other comprising of I2P and Freenet.

By utilising software initially called The Onion Router, Tor tends to secure traffic by routing it via a network of secure relays which anonymize traffic. These relays are said to be run by volunteers all over the world who donate their server bandwidth. Considering it as a network of safe house, one travels through underground tunnels which run along the line of the street above and tend to pop out where you desire safe houses donated by fellow network users.

However with links on the darknet, it is usually only alphanumeric stings of gibberish and could be very difficult to know what you’re getting. It is significant to recall that Tor is not illegal software, only as torrenting software, does not do anything illegal till one tends to use the same in sharing pirated movies.

Tor states that plenty of `normal people’ tend to use its service together with citizen journalists, whistle-blowers, law enforcement agencies and as per Human Rights Watch, Chinese dissidents. As per the estimates of Tor only around 4% of traffic over its network is for hidden services and the rest is people accessing regular internet sites with greater secrecy.

Ultra-Thin Camera Creates Images Without Lenses

Ultra-Thin Optical Phased Array

Cameras, those on the traditional side inclusive of the thinnest ones on cell phones cannot be really flat owing to their optics and lenses tend to need a definite shape and size for functioning. Engineers at Caltech have established a latest strategy Camera with out lens which tends to substitute the lenses with an ultra-thin optical phased array – OPA. The OPA is said to computationally do what lenses tend to do utilising huge pieces of glass, manipulating incoming light in order to capture an image. Lenses are said to have a curve which is inclined to bend the path of incoming light focusing it onto a piece of film or an image sensor in the case of digital cameras. The OPA tends to have a huge array of light receivers and each tend to individually add a tightly controlled time delay or phase shift to the light it seems to receive, thus permitting the camera to selectively view in various directions as well as focus on various things. Ali Hajimiri, Bren professor of Electrical Engineering and medical Engineering in the Division of Engineering and Applied Science at Caltech and the principal investigator of a paper defining the new camera had commented that like most of the other thing in life here, timing is everything.

Fish-Eye to Telephoto Lens

With the new system one can selectively view in a desired direction and at very small part of the image before you at any given point of time by controlling the timing with femto-second, quadrillionth of a second, precision. The paper had been presented at the Optical Society of America’s – OSA Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics – CLEO which had been published online in March 2017 by the OSA in the OSA Technical Digest.

Hajimiri had stated that they had generated a single thin layer of assimilated silicon photonics which tends to follow the lens and sensor of a digital camera thereby reducing the thickness as well as the cost of digital cameras. It tends to imitate a regular lens though can switch from a fish-eye to a telephoto lens promptly with only a simple alteration in the way the array tends to receive light. Phased arrays utilised in wireless communications and radar are said to be an assembly of distinct transmitters which all seem to send out same signal as waves.

These waves interfere with each other constructively and destructively, amplifying the signal in one direction though cancels it out elsewhere. Consequently an array can develop a firmly engrossed beam of signal that can be directed in various directions by staggering the timing of transmission that has developed at various points all over the array.

One-Dimensional Version of Camera

An identical source had been used in reverse, in optical phased array receiver that is the basis for the new camera. The light waves which are received by individual element all over the array, cancel each other from every direction with the exception of one.

 The waves amplify each other in that direction in order to create a directed `gaze’ which can be electronically organized. Graduate student Reza Fatemi lead author of the OSA paper commented that what the camera does is same as looking through a thin straw and scanning it across the field of view. An image can be formed at an extremely quick speed on controlling the light rather than moving a mechanical object.

The team of Hajimiri had rolled out a one-dimensional version of the camera, last year which had the potential of detecting images in a line such as it acted like a lensless barcode reader though with no mechanically moving parts. The progress this year was to build the first two dimensional array with the proficiency of creating a full image.

The first 2D lensless camera tends to have an array composed of only 64 light receivers in a 8 x 8 grid and the resulting image is said to have low resolution. However this system has a tendency of representing a proof of concept for fundamental rethinking of camera technology according to Hajimiri and his colleagues.

Designing Chips – Higher Resolution/Sensitivity

Graduate student Behrooz Abiri, co-author of the OSA paper had stated that the application seems endless and even in present days’ smartphones, the camera is said to be the component which limits how thin ones’ phone could get.

This technology, once scaled could make lenses and thick cameras out-dated. It could also have consequences of astronomy by permitting ultra-light, ultra-thin massive flat telescopes on ground as well as in space.

Hajimiri informed that the ability in controlling all the optical properties of a camera electronically utilising a paper-thin layer of low-cost silicon photonic without the need of any mechanical movement, lenses or mirrors gives way to a new world of imagers which could look like wallpaper, blind or also wearable fabric. The team would work next on topping up the camera by designing chips which would enable much bigger receivers with higher resolution and sensitivity.

Hybrid Driving-Flying Robots Could Go Beyond the Flying Car

Flying Robots – Significant Application in the Future

According to a latest study, groups of flying robot, whether they tend to be swooping in delivering packages or identifying victims in disaster zones, seems to have a range of significant applications in the future. The robots have the tendency to switch from driving to flying without colliding with each other and can also provide assistance beyond the traditionally flying car notion of sci-fi knowledge, as per the study.

The capability of flying as well as walking is mutual in nature, for instance several birds; insects together with other animals tend to do both the functions. Robots having the same flexibility have a tendency to fly over obstructions on the ground or drive under directly above obstacles.

However, according to study lead author Brandon Araki, a roboticist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory together with his colleagues had stated in their new study that, presently, robots which tend to be good at a mode of transportation are generally bad at others.

Robot - `Flying Monkey’

Formerly the researchers had established a robot known as the `flying monkey’, which could run as well as fly and also clasp items. The researchers however had to program the paths which the flying monkey would take, which meant that it could not find safe routes on its own.

These researchers have now created flying cars which tend to fly and also drive through a simulated city-like setting which seems to have parking spots, no-fly zones and landing pads. Besides, the researchers had stated that these drones are inclined to move independently without bumping into each other. Araki had informed Live Science that their vehicles can find their own safe paths.

The scientists had taken eight four-rotor `quadcopter’ drones and had placed two small motors with wheels towards the bottom of each drone, in order to make them skilful for driving. In models, the robots could fly for about 295 feet – 90 meters or drive for 826 feet - 252 meters before the draining of their batteries. It was said that the roboticists established systems which ensured that the robots refrained from colliding with one another.

Driving – Efficient than Flying

All the drones had successfully navigated from a starting point to the ending point on collision-free path in tests conducted in a miniature town using daily materials like pieces of fabrics for roads and cardboard boxes for buildings.

According to the researches, with the addition of the driving device to individual drone gave rise to extra weight as well as slightly reduced battery life, reducing the maximum distance which the drone could fly by around 14%. Moreover, they also observed that driving seemed to be more effective than flying, compensating somewhat small loss in competence to flying owing to the extra weight.

Araki had commented that `the most important implication of the research was that vehicles which combine flying and driving have the potential to be both much more efficient as well as useful than vehicles which can only drive or only fly’. The scientists had warned that fleets of automated flying taxies are probably not coming anytime shortly.

He stated that their present system of drones certainly is not adequately tough to really carry people at the moment. Still these experiments with quadcopters help explore several ideas linked to flying cars.

How to Protect Your Computer with Free Software

These free programs protect your computer

Viruses, trojans or data pioneers: Computers are constantly exposed to attacks. Antivirus programs promise remedy. Stubborn pests often require more intensive treatment.

It can happen that viruses, trojans or other malicious programs can get into your system. As a rule, any malicious software that reports your antivirus software should be removed with the application.

Stubborn pests often require more intensive treatment. In these cases, use free tools that are specialized in the thorough removal of malware. "Computer Image" shows the best programs with which you can free your PC from any kind of malware.

A good antivirus program as a basic protection is mandatory to protect the PC from threats. It does not always have to be expensive security suites, even if they are fully protected. But also free software makes the PC safer.

The important thing is a combination of program packages since individual software solutions do not always eliminate all problems. For example, there is often no firewall included in antivirus freeware.
Earlier, malware reached so often by infected e-mail attachments to the PC. This species of data is less common today, but it has not yet died out.

Scanners and firewalls do not allow viruses

Often, infected codes hide in web pages. Interferences in the browser are files on the PCs and cause damage. Here an anti-virus program helps with real-time detection. Such software will immediately alert you as soon as it detects suspicious files on your PC.

In addition, you should install a firewall. These programs monitor network movements and prevent malicious software from reaching your computer via the Internet or local network. The following overview shows which free programs make your PC safer.

However, viruses, trojans, or other malicious programs can still get into your system. As a rule, any malicious software that reports your antivirus software should be removed with the application. Encryption tools, password manager and more

In order to prevent pests from reaching your PC, you should prevent them and use an anti-virus program. It is recommended to use additional security programs: TrueCrypt, for example, encrypts confidential data and prevents third parties from accessing it. KeePass 2 maintains logging data securely in protected areas.

Anonymity programs such as Hotspot Shield give your PC a different IP address, preventing websites from identifying you. Data shredders like DBAN turn your data so secure that even professionals can not restore them.

And with Avast Browser Cleanup, you can remove unintended, sometimes even harmful, toolbars from your browser. With which free programs you completely protect your PC, "Computer Bild" shows in the photo-stretch.

Real-time scanners and firewalls

A protected PC is primarily an anti-virus software and a firewall. With a special web protection, anti-virus programs also ensure that your browser does not even call up websites that are infected. Firewalls prevent hacker attacks and prevent your programs from sending data unwittingly to the Internet.

Important: You should choose an antivirus and firewall program and not use multiple programs in parallel. Failure to do so could cause problems such as PC crashes.

Vivo announces its X9s and X9s Plus phones

X9s & X9s Plus – Bigger Batteries/Wider Bodies

Two new smartphones have been debuted by Chinese phone maker Vivo in China recently namely X9s and X9s Plus. Both the phones are said to be a bit upgraded versions of the earlier X9 devices. The X9s Plus will be introduced on sale from July 8 when the registration for the X9s will be debuted on July 14 and the same will be going on sale beginning from July 20.

The X9s and X9s Plus would be launched in three colour options namely Rose Gold, Matte Black and Gold. The updated model comprises of bigger batteries, little wider bodies and tends to run Android Nougat. Similar to the older version they tend to have dual selfie cameras and their specs have not altered much. However one can expect the following from the X9s Plus which comes at a price of 2,998 Yuan or around $440:

•  Android Nougat 
•  4,015mAh battery 
•  5.85-inch Full HD AMOLED display 
•  Front fingerprint sensor 
•  16-megapixel rear-facing camera, 20-megapixel/50megapixel front-facing cameras 
•  4GB of RAM, 64GB storage

Vivo - 5th Most Popular Smartphone Maker

The regular X9s tends to have same specs though has a smaller display and battery. Moreover it also comprises of a dual selfie cameras which Vivo tends to be utilising in creating a background blurring effect. Other companies have also been experimenting with dual selfie cameras. Companies like LG, Oppo and Alcatel tend to have built dual front-facing cameras in their devices though they usually tend to utilise them in capturing wider shots.

Vivo according to an analyst firm is said to be the fifth most popular smartphone maker in the world having most of its market focused in India and China. The company is attempting to gain recognition through sponsorship like the next two World Cup, and it won’t be surprising to hear more regarding Vivo. The Vivo X9s boasts of 5.5-inch FHD 1080p AMOLED display where the Plus variant has a large 5.85-inch FHD 1080p AMOLED display. Both the smartphones are said to have narrow bezels together with a fingerprint sensor which is embedded in their home button towards the front area.

Employs – Octa-Core Snapdragon

The Vivo X9s tends to employ an octa-core Snapdragon 652 processor,below the hood and the Vivo X9s Plus tends to have an octa-core Snapdragon 653 processor. Both of these processors are supported by 4GB RAM and 64GB of storage space.

 While running on Android 7.1 Nougat, these phones are said to be topped with Funtouch OS 3.1 and the imaging features comprises of a 16MP main camera with LED flash together with PDAF as well as a dual camera setup towards the front. This comprises of a 20MP main sensor together with soft LED flash and a 5MP subordinate sensor.

From the connectivity point of view, the Vivo smartphone are said to be equipped with 4G VoLTE, Bluetooth 4.2, GPS as well as a dual SIM support. The Vivo X9s is said to be controlled by a 3320mAh battery while the X9s Plus is powered by a 4015mAh battery and both the batteries tend to support fast charging also.

Someone Made a Working Six Speed Gearbox Out of Lego

Lego and the Gear Box

Lego never fails to surprise people with its frequent new building creativity. They are the most renowned name in terms of its excellence. Whenever we are reminded of those explicit cars enfolded in amazing bricks made of plastics we are filled with exuberance. They never let us down, but now they are back with a different take our expectation to a different level.

Dgustafsson 13 is the new development made in the arena of building by none other than Lego. Some of its features are gaerboc with 6 speed, numerous positive caster angle with front axle, parts of scania, scania cabs bendy suspension parts with rear axle, motorized parts simply usable technical parts and elevator parts.

These parts all together make this machine a remarkable bus. There are several buses available in the market, but this one turns out to be the best of its time. Lego has again taken the notches high by the introduction of these explicit machine which is the most technologically bus of all times. This city bus is the one, which is equipped with best possible equipments to give safety measures and an unhindered journey to its passengers.

Lego with the involvement of gears bestowed with six speeds is the best is what makes this city bus extraordinary. It makes the bus work almost like a real thing. This newly introduced transmission is a new thing, which makes Dgustafsson 13, the most synchronized model of all times with not even an inch of compromise in terms of gears and makes it the best version of the city buses available.

The motor associated with it is the best of all times. The motor is a much developed version of motor available, which helps in stabilizing synchronization. Lego has always something new to offer to its people.

The kit that Dgustafsson 13 it isn’t the official one and when you go into the detailing of Dgustafsson 13, it is then when you are made aware of the Lego technicalities and its development and once you get acquainted with its kit then you understand that how developed Lego is in terms of technicalities. The more you get to know Lego the more updated version of technology you are acquainted with. The technology that Lego offers is not that difficult to build all you need is dedication and the interest to transform technology to a different level.

By looking at Lego Kit, you understand how you can revolutionize the level of gear boxes. It is not that difficult a proper mindset with an enhanced knowledge can make things happen. Once you see the Lego gear box you understand what it is. Lego is the most heard name because it never fails to surprise people with its updated version of all times.

Lego knows the art of taking machine to a different level and the instructions it posts online helps people to develop such kind of techniques to fed into their machines. Lego is here to revolutionize the era of machines.

iPhone 8 to ditch fingerprint sensor for face scanner, reports say

iPhone 8 – Refurbished Security System

The upcoming iPhone 8 of Apple would be featuring a refurbished security system wherein the users can unlock the device by utilising their face instead of their fingerprints. The 10th anniversary of iPhones is estimated in having a radical redesign that would comprise of a security system which will scan the faces of the users in order to check who could be using the device.

As per Bloomberg, it is said that the 3D scanning scheme would be replacing the Touch ID as a means of verifying payments, log in to apps as well as in unlocking the phone. It could function at various angles and hence the iPhone has the tendency of getting unlocked by merely looking at it, if the same is flat on the table and also held up right. It has been reported that the scanning system has been designed for the purpose of speed and precision and can scan the face of the user and unlock the device within a few hundred milliseconds.

Since it tends to analyse 3D instead of 2D images, it is likely to be capable of differentiating between a persons’ face and an image of the person. Presently available in Galaxy S8 of Samsung in strengthening the security of the device, Apple could also utilise the eye scanning technology.

Face Scanning Technology

Bloomberg had reported that the face scanning technology could secure more than the Touch ID, first released in 2013 on the iPhone S5 since it tends to draw on more identifiers. Apple has claimed that its fingerprint scanner tends to have only a 1 in 50,000 chance of being unlocked by a stranger’s fingerprint. According to an analyst having reliable track record, Ming-Chi Kuo, the iPhone 8 is said to feature an edge-to-edge OLED screen having the maximum screen-to-body ratio than any smartphone prevailing at the moment.

Apple would probably remove the Home button as well as the Touch ID scanner in order to make provision for the display. Kuo has also predicted that Apple would be releasing three new phones in September, namely the iPhone 8, iPhone 7S and iPhone 7S Plus. The iPhone 8 would be featuring the most vivid redesign among the three, having a 5.2-inch size screen retained in a device which would be the same size as the iPhone 7. Besides that it would also have less colour options and will be available with a glass front with steel edges towards the back.

New Chip Dedicated to Processing Artificial Intelligence

A well-linked Apple blogger, John Gruber had mentioned that the top iPhone could be named as `iPhone Pro’ recommending that the cost could be $1,500 or higher. The remaining two devices would be featuring LCD screens and will be available in sizes of 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch. Like the present iPhone 7, these devices would probably have a Home button together with Touch ID.

It is also said that the three phones would be having a Lightning port together with an embedded USB-C equipped with storage of 64GB or 256GB, if the predictions of Kuo tends to be accurate. Moreover they would be available with a new chip that is dedicated to processing artificial intelligence and the same is being verified presently.

New Tool Offers Snapshots of Neuron Activity

Get to see the neuron activity with a snapshot taking tool

Scientists have always wondered how the human brain works and this has led to various huge budget researches. A number of cognitive processes take place within few seconds or minutes with the help highly efficient and fast paced neuron activity in the brain. It was a dream of the neuroscientists to find some way to capture and study how the neurons works in tandem to successfully perform wide variety of tasks within the shortest amount of time. A team of scientists has just built such tool which is capable of taking snapshots of the neuron activity and this feat is regarded nothing than scientific marvel.

Team behind the development of snapshot tool

A team of researchers from MIT and Stanford University has come up a noble solution to map the activity of the neurons in the brain. They had developed a smart and influential way of labeling the neurons as they turn active which in turn helps in creating a snapshot of the activity in real time. Their approach has been applauded by many as offers new exciting insights into the core functioning of the neurons. It has found to be extremely precise and capable than the currently used cell labeling techniques as it is helps in capturing the activity performed by the neurons over a time, hours or even days.

FLARE is the new age for labelling neuron activity

Researchers developed a technique called FLARE which they demonstrated on the mice to showcase how the neuron activity is mapped by this tool. Herein a red fluorescent protein which is also known as mCherry present in the motor cortex of the mice is turned as they started running on the treadmill. The future prospects of this tool are immense as it can be used for the cell belling in the light-sensitive proteins known as DREADDS. This will in turn allow the neurons to be controlled effectively in the small molecule drugs in future. The best thing about this tool is that its component has the potential to be delivered using the viral vectors which enhances the overall scope of its application.

Understanding the neuron activity using the snapshots by careful labelling is being seen as the first step towards the future where scientists will be able to manipulate multiple set of the neurons. This will allow them to perform specific set of tasks which was impossible for a really long time. An example will help in illustrating this point, using this technology researchers will be able to investigate the way in which brain during quick decision making, they will be able to find the strong emotions associated with it as well as helps I determining the behaviour which will be appropriate for specific situation.

FLARE will be extremely useful in studying as well as treating various diseases in future which even includes the Alzheimer’s disease. Scientists will be able to employ this tool to identify the diseased neuron and treat them specifically so a patient left with the healthy neurons only.

Intel working on new chips to compete with NVIDIA GPUs

Intel & NVIDIA – Combat for Turf

The battle between Intel and NVIDIA seems to have been locked in new combat for turf which is the booming data centre market and the core of this conflict is the technology which is changing the world- Artificial Intelligence. – AI. The revenue of NVIDIA in the recent quarter ended April 30, had augmented by 48% touching $1.94 billion in comparison to earlier year.

They had received a big revenue crash from its Data centre business that had recorded $409 million revenue in the first quarter of this fiscal, 186% up, year-on-year, due to the exponential increase in the spike in demand for specific type of microprocessor known as Graphic Processing Unit – GPU, prepared by NVIDIA. Most of the huge technology companies such as Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, IBM as well as Alibaba have installed the best Tesla GPUs of NVIDIA to control their data centres to perform machine learning in analysing data collected from the cloud and gain awareness.

The MD of NVIDIA, Vishal Dhupar, had commented that they had seen the PC era that had been followed by the mobile era and now envisage the emergence of the AI era. Once viewed only as a gaming technology, GPU are now making inroads in data centres driving initiatives around machine learning- ML together with artificial intelligence – AI.

Data Centres – Storehouses of Huge Volumes of Data

Data centres are said to be storehouses of huge volumes of data that tends to connect the compute power of GPUs in order to make sense of huge repository of data. The arrival of GPUs have assisted in redefining the concept of systems designs for several of the high-performance application in the commercial and the non-commercial sectors of the market, according to Rajnish Arora, VP of enterprise Computing Research, IDC. Could it mean that Intel would be losing market share in the data centre space?

Arora had stated that they do not believe that Intel in losing share of the server CPU market to NVIDIA. The numbers evidently determine that Intelseemed to have consolidated its presence and market share in the server market. Presently Intel CPUs power data centres all across the globe and tends to revel in near control accounting for 95.7% of the entire server shipped in 2016.Moreover it is also betting big on AI and has financed greatly in start-ups that have assisted in building AI together with High-Performance Computing –HPC competences in its upcoming chips

Knights Mill/Knights Crest

Intel had bought Altera in 2015, for $16.7 billion, which was a company making programmable devices that could be optimised for AI and ML. It had gone ahead in August and had bought deep learning start-up Nervana Systems to strengthen AI specific solutions. The new chips called `Knights Mill’ will be sold later this year by Intel to address the growing Machine Learning – ML, market.

Moreover it is also working on `Knights Crest’ chips that will manage deep neural networks which is a component of deep learning – DL.A fellow at Intel Labs, Pradeep Dubey had stated that `competition has always been around and they are optimizing their chips for machine learning as well as deep learning applications since this is a big opportunity for them. There are also four new processors which will be released this year’. These products would be competing against NVIDIA GPU in the data centre market.

Can You Hear Me Now?

 

Lombard - Split Second Act from Ear to Brain –

It has been observed that humans as well as animals while trying to be heard over sound tend to raise their voices. It is said to be a split-second act from the ear to the brain for vocalization. The first to measure how fast it tends to occur in bats – 30 milliseconds, are researchers from Johns Hopkins University. This is 10 times quicker than the blink of an eye, a record for audio vocal response.

 Since this deed is known as the Lombard, its effect tends to take place very fast; the researchers were capable of solving a long overdue mystery considering the neural mechanism behind it. Recently in a paper publishing in the journal `Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences’, they concluded that it could be a fundamental temporal reflex instead of a deeper, thinking behaviour as presumed earlier, which would be time consuming in processing.

The discoveries shedding light on the foundations of human speech control has also disclosed how species as diverse as fish, animals, and frogs together with humans tend to share the ability to be head over the fight. Co-author Ninad Kothari, a graduate student in Psychological and Brain Sciences at Johns Hopkins stated that scientist have been speculating for a century that, could there be a common auditory process in explaining how this phenomenon occurred in fish to frogs to birds to human species with wildly various hearing systems and they had resolved this question.

Lombard Effect

The new statistics could lead to improved treatment for diseases and the Lombard effect could be intensified like Parkinson’s disease as well as support in building assistive medical devices. Studies conducted on bats, animals which tend to depend on sonar-like echolocation, releasing sounds and listening for echoes in order to sense, track and catch prey, had been carried out by the researchers.

In contrast to humans, where the vocalization tends to be reasonably long and slow, bats seems to be perfect for such sensorimotor study since their extraordinary frequency chirps, unnoticeable to the human ear are said to be quick and accurate enabling the researchers to test the parameters of a mammalian brain.

While tracking an insect moving towards the animal on a tether, the team had trained big brown bats to stay balanced on a platform and while the bat hunted for the insect, the researchers had recorded the vocalization of the bat with an array of 14 microphones. The researchers at time permitted the bat to hunt in silence while at other times they played bursts of interfering white noise at different intensities from a speaker which has been placed in front of the bat.

Brain Monitors Background Noise Continuously

It was observed that the white noise had interfered with the echolocation of the bat and had caused the bat to emit louder and louder chirps not different from two neighbours attempting in making a conversation, first over a lurid radio and then over the clamour of a lawn mower and thereafter over the blast of a passing fire engine.

When the noise had stopped, the bat would also stop shouting, to speak and voice at a more usual level. The researchers capable of creating a computational model for the Lombard effect which tends to be applicable to all vertebrate, reached a conclusion that the brain of a bat or a person or a fish tends to monitor continuously the background noise and is inclined to adjust the vocal levels whenever the need arises.

 At first the auditory system is said to notice the background noise. Then the auditory system measures the level of sound pressure and tends to adjust the vocalization amplitude in order to compensate and when the background noise stops, the sound pressure level dissipates as well as the level of vocalization.

Connection Between Hearing & Vocalizations

The author observed that this complete intricate process tends to take place in only 30 milliseconds. In terms of near-instantaneous brain reactions, they name this reflex as `remarkably short’. Lead author Jinhong Luo, a Johns Hopkins postdoctoral colleague had stated that `typically, we breathe every three to five seconds, our heart beats once per second and eye blinking takes one third of a second.

If we believe that eye blinking is fast, the speed at which an echolocating bat responds to ambient noise is truly shocking – 10 times quicker than we blink our eyes’. Scientists are of the belief that the Lombard effect seems to be much slower, around 150 to 175 milliseconds for humans.

Johns Hopkins professor of Psychological and Brian Sciences and Neuroscience and a co-author, Cynthia Moss commented that their study features echolocating bats as valuable animal models for understanding connections between hearing and vocalizations, including speech control in humans.

 The research has been supported by the national Science foundation IOS-1010193 and IOS-1460149, the Human Frontiers Science Program RGP0040 and LT000279/2016-L, the Office of Naval Research N00014-12-1-0339 and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research FA9550-14-1-0398

Watching Cities Grow

Great Resolution Civilian Radar Satellite

Major cities in the world have been increasing and as per the estimates of United Nations, presently half of the population of the world tends to be living in cities. Towards 2050, the figure is expected to mount to two thirds of the population of the world.

 Professor for Signal Processing in Earth Observation at TUM, Xiaoxiang Zhu has informed that this growth has given rise to high demands on building and infrastructure safety since destruction events could threaten thousands of human lives at once. Zhu together with her team had established a method of early detection of probable dangers for instance; subterranean subsidence could cause the collapse of buildings, bridges, tunnels or even dams.

The new system tends to make it possible in noticing and visualizing changes as small as one millimetre each year. Data for the latest urban images tends to come from the German TerraSAR-X satellite which is one of the great resolution civilian radar satellite in the world. Since 2007, the satellite, circulating the earth at an altitude of approximately 500 kilometres tends to send microwave pulses to the earth and collects their echoes. Zhu has explained that at first these measurements were only in a two dimensional image with a resolution of one meter.

Generate Highly Accurate Four-Dimensional City Model

The TUM professor worked in partnership with the German Aerospace Centre – DLR and was also in charge of her own working team. The DLR tends to be in control of the operation and use of the satellite for scientific purposes.

The consequence of the images is restricted by the statistic that reflections from various objects which are at an equivalent distance from the satellite, will layover with each other and this effect tends to decrease the three-dimensional world to a two-dimensional image. Zhu had not only created her own algorithm that tends to make it possible in reconstructing the third and also fourth dimension, but also set a world record at the same time.

 Four dimensional point clouds having a density of three million points for each square kilometre had been reconstructed. This rich recovered information gave rise to generate highly accurate four-dimensional city models.

Radar Measurements to Reconstruct Urban Infrastructure

The trick was that the scientists utilised images taken from slightly various viewpoints. Every eleven days, the satellite tends to fly over the region of interest but its orbit position does not always seem to be precisely the same. The researchers utilise these 250 meter orbital variations in radar tomography to localize each point in three-dimensional space.

This system utilises similar principle used by computer tomography that tends to develop a three-dimensional view of the inner area of the human body. Various radar images taken from different viewpoints have been linked in creating a three-dimensional image. Zhu states that since this system processes only poor resolution in the third dimension, additional compressive sensing system which makes it possible for improving the resolution by 15 times is applied.

Scientists could utilise the radar dimensions to restructure urban organization on the surface of the earth with great accuracy, from TerraSAR-X, for instance the 3D shape of individual buildings. This system has already been utilised in generating highly precise 3D models in Berlin, Paris, Las Vegas and Washington DC.

How to use EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard?

What happened when you have lost your precious files from PC, laptop, or any removable device? Obviously, you will be disappointed, and you will be looking for some data recovery software's to recover the data from your device. But, are all the data recovery software's reliable? To find out an answer, you have to read several reviews from reliable sources and try out data recovery software. Since data recovery software's can re-instate the data for you, but if it doesn’t work properly, then they might destroy your data permanently. So, we have a got trustworthy source of free data recovery software named as EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard Free.

EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard features multiple wizards

•  PC data recovery wizard: You can recover the files easily from hard drives, SSDs, or external hard drives from your PCs, laptops, and servers. This wizard can also help you to recover the formatted or lost partition. 
•  Memory card recovery wizard: You can recover the data quickly from the corrupted or damaged memory card which includes SD card, memory stick, Micro Card, and CF card. 
•  USB Drive Recovery Wizard: You can recover the files from the flash drive, USB drive, pen drive and other removable storage devices, where the files were lost due to formatting, accidental deletion, or virus attack. 
•  Other digital device recovery wizard: You can recover the lost data easily from the digital devices like mobile phones, digital camera, music and video player, and iPod where the files were lost due to formatting, hardware crash, deleting and other reasons. 

Now save your data from different crisis

EaseUS Data Recovery Software allows you to restore data from many situations like hard drive corruption, formatting, deletion, and virus attack especially because of malware/ransomware attacks like WannaCry and Petya.

EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard can recover the files from below situations: 

•  Formatted drives 
•  Hard Drive failure 
•  Accidental Deletion 
•  System Crash 
•  Virus Attack 
•  RAW partition 
• Partition Loss 
•  And many more reasons 

Advantages of EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard

•  You don't need to be experienced to use this wizard; you can easily recover the data just following step by step to recover everything back. So, this wizard is easy and safe wizard to retrieve the files from PCs, laptops, and servers. 
•  After, you scan the data which needs to be recovered it gives you the clear preview picture about the data which are going to be retrieved, and it will get you the lost files back fast and in good quality. 

How to use the EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard? 

EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard is the great file recovery software, where you can recover the files quickly and securely. You need to follow the below steps:

•  You need to install this software and then select the location from where you want your files to be recovered. 
•  Then, click on Scan, and it will show you the set of files which were lost. 
•  Also, it has the option of deep scan where you can look for more lost files. 
•  Once the scan is completed, you can preview the results of the scan. 
•  Then, click on Recover the retrieve the lost files.

The Secret to a Perfect Selfie

Trailblazing Self-Portrait – Over £6 Million

Though selfies are said to be a basic of our technology-fanatical generation they do not always seem to be creative. Andy Warhol had takes what could have been some of the most well-known selfies in the world portraying that the artist seems to be much ahead of his time.

 Tom van Laer, a Senior Lecturer in Marketing at City University of London and Stefania Farace, a PhD Candidate in Marketing at Maastricht University in an article for The Conversation, had studied Warhol’s popular photo revealing the three simple rules to the perfect selfie for social media. Andy Warhol, in 1963 had walked in a New York photobooth and had taken what could have been the most famous selfies in the world.

One of the trailblazing self-portrait had been sold for just over £6 million. These selfies seemed to suit effortlessly Warhol’s vision of the pop art era of the late 1950s and 1960s and are typically all-American, mechanical and democratic. Although photobooth images did not go viral like social media images tend to do now, the use of a photobooth in making art was in 1963 fiercely innovative as well as added to the aura of technical invention which surrounded Warhol like it surrounds selfie together with social media presently.

Selfies – Holy Grail of Social Media

Selfies are said to be the holy grail of social media a kind of self-portraying images which tend to be posted on social networking site with details to involve large number of audience. According to latest study it had been revealed that three things could assist the user in taking images which are worth, if not millions of pounds but at least a thousand words and without the need of one risking their life for them.

 Three online experiments had been conducted by their team with workers from Amazon Mechanical Turk that had crowdsource expertise in a range of fields, one with students on computers in the university laboratory and one corpus analysis. It involved a method of looking at a body of evidence jointly with self-governing coders. To define precisely what people involve with, when they view images online, the participants various images were portrayed.

These images were rated on various photographic elements, point of view, content, artsiness and the like. Moreover they also specified how likely they were to comment on the images if they viewed them on social media. With these studies it became possible to segregate the things which seemed to affect people in stopping from caring about an online image and to locate images which would involve them.
Enthusiastic Selfie-Portrait Artist - Awareness –

Besides that they also helped to determine the type of images on which people possibly tend to comment. There are three things which enthusiastic selfie-portrait artist should be aware of:

1. People favour you before the camera

Point of view – POV, in photography is said to be a question of who it is people `see’ taking the image. The unassuming difference is that of `person’ of which there seems to be two principle types namely third person – Warhol taking an image of Marilyn Monroe for instance and first person – Warhol’s selfie.

In the case of Warhol’s time, several of the photographs had been taken from a third person point of view. However this has changed and research does not find much interest for third person images in social media age. From the point of view, it tends to add elaborately to how individuals feel and think as they view the images and just as the point of view could be from one within or outside the image, people then to pick up various feelings and thoughts.

Warhol has contributed immensely in the pictured story of his selfie than in his famous image of Marilyn Monroe and just he is more involved in the story he is conveying with his selfie, so also others are statically likely to get involved with the content of selfies.

2. People get bored of just you

Since the portrait had first been invented, painters and photographers seemed to set priority of importance to person or action. Several of the selfies are said to be about themselves, though our research recommend that this is a poor strategy for drawing attention since people are 15-14% likely in commenting on selfies of individuals doing that which is meaningful than on only selfies. Selfie-takers tend to have agency beyond only being the subject of their own images and tend to do things like eating of drinking of waving their free hand. Warhol had done something else; he had appeared as adjusting his tie.

3. Realistic images put people off 

The selfie of Warhol had been designed not for portraying or depict the truth but to accept the artifice and deception in-built to any kind of illustration. If the creative flexibility in reality and image had been wide in the photograph of Warhol, it would be vast since photography arrived in social media and this is essentially the case. Photographers, who tend to complain that selfies seem to be poor illustration of reality, overlook the fact that taking selfies is not illustration of anything but the unattached sense.

Research has shown that not changing images could wind up in failure and a variation could be silly or serious, unprofessional or professional and so on. Modern photographers need to organize the full power of procedure like emoji, lenses, filters as well as tools since selfie sticks to turn the original into something artful. These selfies tend to be superior with regards to engagement and it was observed that people tend to be 11.86% more likely in commenting on adapted selfies.

As users tend to become more sophisticated in their choice of images, it tends to pay to being more people-centric and to think harder regarding the value an image tends to provide the audience instead of just yourself. The outcome seems to be a renovated selfie of one doing something, an image which is worth a thousand words. In 1968, Warhol had written that `in future everyone would be world well-known for 15 minutes and that future is now.

Imagination Technologies Accuses Apple of Unethical Behaviour in Chip Dispute

Dispute Between Apple & Imagination Technology

Apple has been accused by Imagination Technology for breaking its own ethics as the clash between the British microchip company and its biggest customers have turned very bitter. The Hertfordshire founded group that had been abandoned in April by Apple after the Silicon Valley giant had stated that it would be taking the graphics technology in-house, informed that talks on determining the standstill between the two had stalled and recommended legal action would be the next step.

Apple had depended on the designs of Imagination for the graphics chip which tends to power the iPhone as well as the iPad for years and Apple accounts for almost half of the sales of Imagination. The dispute of Imagination is that Apple would be capable of designing its own chips without paying for access to the intellectual property of the British company and has put itself for sale with analyst stating that the company may combat to survive without further payments.

 Recently the chief executive of Imagination, Andrew Heath had informed that Apple’s claims that the maker of iPhone would no longer need to pay royalties that were `unsubstantiated’ and has labelled the actions of Apple as unacceptable.

Contract Dispute

He further commented that they do not believe that this is an acceptable business practice nor in line with the ethics statements of Apple considering suppliers. He also mentioned that there had been `no progress’ with regards to the contract dispute that Imagination had opened and that it is revising its options, signifying legal action as a prospect. The full-year results of the British company had been published recently indicating that there could be life after Apple.

It also exposed a pre-tax profit of £2.4m against a £29.4m loss the previous year and adjusted operating profits, which shred out the effects of recent rearrangement, increased to £29.2m. The revenues increased 19% to £145.2 due to a series of new contracts approved last year together with the weaker pound. The shares of Imagination had increased by 6.5% and had dropped in April when the company had confirmed that Apple intended to terminate its relationship in the next two years.

However it had recovered after Imagination had put it up for sale in June. The company had informed that it is in initial discussions with probable bidders and analysts vender such as Intel, Qualcomm and ARM Holdings as the potential owners.

Imagination – Big GPU Designers

Oliver Knott, an analyst at N+1 Singer had commented that `without Apple it was difficult to see how it survived as a viable business. He informed that failing to resolve the dispute would make it difficult for Imagination in signing up more customers in the near future.

Apple had refrained from commenting. Imagination had been one of the big GPU designers in the smartphone industry together with another British group – ARM Holdings, and America’s Qualcomm. Smartphones usually tend to have two processors, the brains which are at the core of the functions of the device, the central processing unit – CPU and graphics processing unit – GPU.

 Though the CPU is devoted to the number munching which runs the application, the GPU is said to be responsible in creating images and videos. In the case of smartphones, more commanding GPUs tend to be very important in the midst of the rise of sharper as well as superior screens together with higher-definition video.

Apple is said to be equally exclusive among smartphone manufacturers in which it builds the microchip utilised in its iPhone though it does not make them from scratch. It warrants the powerVR GPU technology from Imagination in its processors.

3D-Sensing Camera – Augmented Reality Technology

Apple has been paying Imagination a royalty for this on every iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch as well as AppleTV it tends to sell. Considering that Apple is said to be the biggest smartphone, tablet and smartwatch maker by volumes and profits in the world, the same has been an extremely profitable relationship for Imagination.

The revenue for Imagination from Apple had been £60.7m just over half of its total sales and it had been expected to be £65m this year. Moreover Apple also had an 8% stake in Imagination and had reflected on purchasing the company outright at one point of time. Imagination had been informed by Apple that it intended in developing its own GPU technology, putting an end to the use of the technology of Imagination.

 It plans to do so in 15 months to two years’ time, in line with the anticipated time scale for the next one iPhone probably to be released in September 2018. GPUs are significant in the working of the camera and its function and reports propose that Apple has been working on a 3D-sensing camera for augmented reality technology, something which will need an increase in graphics processing power.

Moreover GPUs tend to also be critical to machine learning technology like speech and image recognition. Apple which tends to do more data processing on the device than its rivals, requires a high-powered processor for this purpose, for privacy reasons.

Hot Electrons Move Faster Than Expected

Ultrafast Motion of Electrons

A new research has given rise to solid-state devices which tend to utilise excited electrons. Engineers and scientists at Caltech have for the first time, been in a position of observing directly the ultrafast motion of electrons instantly after they have been excited by a laser. It was observed that these electrons tend to diffuse in their surroundings quickly and beyond than earlier anticipated.

This performance called as `super-diffusion has been hypothesized though not seen before. A team headed by Marco Bernardi of Caltech and the late Ahmed Zewail had documented the motion of electrons by utilising microscope which had captured the images with a shutter speed of a trillionth of a second at a nanometer-scale spatial resolution and their discoveries had appeared in a study published on May 11 in Nature Communications.

 The excited electrons had displayed a diffusion rate of 1,000 times higher than earlier excitation. Though the phenomenon had lasted only for a few hundred trillionths of a second, it had provided the possibility for operation of hot electrons in this fast system in transporting energy and charge in novel devices.

Assistant professor of applied physics and materials science in Caltech’s Division of Engineering and Applied Science, Bernardi had informed that their work portrayed the presence of fast transient which tends to last for a few hundred picoseconds at the time when electrons move quicker than their speed of room temperature, indicating that they can cover longer distance in a given period of time when operated with the help of lasers.

Ultrafast Imaging Technology

He further added that this non-equilibrium behaviour could be employed in novel electronic, optoelectronic as well as renewable energy devices together with uncovering new fundamental physics. Nobel Laureate Ahmed Zewail, the Linus Pauling Professor of Chemistry, professor of physics as well as the director of the Physical Biology Centre for Ultrafast Science and Technology at Caltech, colleague of Bernardi had passed away on 2nd August 2016.

The research had been possible by scanning ultrafast electron microscopy, which is an ultrafast imaging technology initiated by Zewail, with the potential of creating images with picosecond time with nanometer spatial resolutions. The theory and computer models had been developed by Bernardi which clarified the tentative results as an indicator of super-diffusion.

Bernandi has plans of continuing the research by trying to answer the fundamental questions regarding the excited electrons, like how they equilibrate among themselves as well as with atomic vibrations in material, together with applied ones like how hot electrons could increase the efficiency of energy conversion devices such as solar cells and LEDs.

Super Diffusion of Excited Carriers in Semiconductors

The paper has been entitled `Super Diffusion of Excited Carriers in Semiconductors’. Co-authors comprise of former postdoc Ebrahim Najafi of Caltech, who is said to be the main author of the paper and a former graduate student, Vsevolod Ivanov. The research has been supported by the National Science foundation, together with the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the Gordon and Betty Moor Foundation as well as the Caltech-Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology – GIST, program.

Laying the Groundwork for Longer Battery Life

Batteries with Long Life – Interact with Technology

Some of the common complaints regarding cell phone or the laptop are regarding the battery life which tends to turn off when needed the most. We are inclined to rely on technology which is an integral part of our life and find it difficult to do anything without it.

 We would find it extremely difficult to cope up with our life even for a short period of time without our cell phone which tends to connect us with the external world. The faculty from Drexel’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering have discovered this topic in a latest invited article in Nature Energy – `Perspective’. Batteries having long life and tend to charge instantly could change how we interact with our technology.

Anne Steven Assistant Professor Ekaterina Pomerantseva together with Distinguished University and Charles T. as well as Ruth M. Bach Chair Professor Yury Gogotsi suggested that the next generation batteries have been developed by combining different two-dimensional 2D materials in heterostructured electrodes and would immensely enhance battery life and charge storage potentials, thus changing the technology setting. The term `2D’ materials is utilised in describing materials which tend to be developed in single layer, like a sheet of paper which is only one or many atoms thick.

2D Heterostuctured Electrodes

These exceptional materials have started portraying amazing potentials for different properties which could be applied to a wide selection of applications. The most frequently known 2D materials are said to be graphene together with various graphene modification, transition metal dischalcogenides – TMDCs, transition metal oxides –TMOs together with transition metal carbide/nitrides – MXenes.

Individually, these material families tend to display definite benefits for energy storage applications though simultaneously tend to have some shortcomings. Pomerantseva had commented that they suggest that in order to eradicate the shortcomings while maintaining most of the benefits of these opposing 2D materials is in creating what is known as 2D heterostructed electrodes composed of interchanging layers of various 2D materials which tend to portray various functionalities.

The single layer structure of 2D materials is for the most part valuable for the purpose of energy storage properties since these thin materials tend to have a great surface range that enables quick diffusion of ions from an electrolyte, which is a liquid utilised in transporting ions between two electrodes. This quick movement of ions on the surface permits a battery to charge immediately. Besides this the 2D material also makes provision for a denser packing of ions between the layers that leads to the battery stocking the charge for a longer period.

Contrary Chemical Reaction

Though there is an opportunity that the solvent utilised in the electrolyte tends to have the possibility of causing a contrary chemical reaction with the electrode in the battery resulting in reduced battery performance, the ability of 2D materials for enhanced battery performance tends to outweigh the potential challenges.

In order to build these 2D heterostructures a parallel orientation or interface of layers of various 2D materials is essential. Gogotsi has informed that the interface of materials in this way tends to optimize their unique properties. For instance, on combining various layers of TTMO together with graphene, a high capacity of oxide as well as high electronic conductivity of carbon could be attained in the resulting 2D heterostructure which could lead to a battery having high energy together with high power.

There is a possibility of modifying the 2D heterostructures still further by integrating different types of inorganic ions, organic molecules and also polymers, which are known as species between the layers. This integration of these interlayer species could lead to various developments in electrochemical properties. The interlayer species could extend the interlayer spacing enabling additional electrochemically cycling ions in being incorporated between the layers which could lead to a higher capacity which in turn could lead to energy density of the batteries.

Insertion/Extraction

Moreover due to the interactions between the layers as well as the interlayer species, the structural stability of the electrodes through multiple cycles of ions is said to go through insertions and extraction which can be enhanced. Should the interlayer species be charged, their presence between the layers could disturb the diffusion of electrochemically cycled ion inclusive of the acceleration of the diffusion that tends to lead to batteries with better power.

Utilising 2D heterostructured electrodes with suitably selected interlayer species seem to have abundant promise in developing a battery which would not only charge quickly but also hold an individual charge for a longer period and will also tend to last longer over several charge and discharge cycles.

 Pomerantseva had informed that if such a battery is utilised in powering a car, it would be capable of greater driving range before the need of a re-charge, and the re-charge process would take a short duration of time. Moreover the owner of the car would possibly desire to buy a new car well before the light indicating that the battery required to be replaced is illuminated.

L2 vs. L3 cache: What’s the Difference?

The cache is a special buffer memory that is located between the memory and the processor.

So that the processor does not have to get every program command from the slow memory individually, a whole command block or data block is loaded into the cache. The probability that the subsequent program instructions are in the cache is relatively high. Only when all program instructions have been executed or a jump command to a jump address outside the cache, the processor must access the memory again. Therefore, the cache should be as large as possible so that the processor can run the program instructions one after the other without waiting.

Typically, processors work with multi-level caches that are different in size and fast. The closer the cache is to the computing core, the faster it works.

Inclusive cache and exclusive cache

With the multicore processors the terms inclusive and exclusive cache came up. Inclusive cache means that data in the L1 cache is also present in the L2 and L3 cache. This makes data consistency between the cores more secure. Compared to the exclusive cache, some storage capacity is given away because the data is redundant in the caches of several CPU cores.

Exclusive cache means that the cache is available to a processor core exclusively, that is, for it alone. It does not have to share the cache with another core. A disadvantage of this is that several processor cores can then exchange data with one another only by way of a detour.

L1 cache / first-level cache

As a rule, the L1 cache is not particularly large. For reasons of space it moves in the order of 16 to 64 kByte. Usually, the memory area for commands and data is separated from each other. The importance of the L1 cache increases with the higher CPU speed.

In the L1 cache, the most frequently used commands and data are buffered so that as few accesses as possible to the slow memory are required. This cache avoids delays in the data transfer and helps to optimally utilize the CPU.

L2 cache / second-level cache

In the L2 cache, the data of the working memory (RAM) is buffered.

The processor manufacturers supply the different market segments with specially modified processors via the size of the L2 cache. The choice between a processor with more clock speed or a larger L2 cache can be answered in a simplified manner as follows: With a higher clock, individual programs, especially with high arithmetic requirements, run faster. As soon as several programs run at the same time, a larger cache is an advantage. Typically, normal desktop computers with a processor that has a large cache are better served than with a processor that has a high clock rate.

When the memory controller was shifted from the chipset into the processor and the processor was able to access memory much faster, the importance of the L2 cache decreased. While the size of the L2 cache has decreased, the L3 cache has been properly upgraded.

L3 cache / third-level cache

As a rule, multicore processors use an integrated L3 cache. With the L3 cache, the Cache Koheranz protocol of Multicore processors can work much faster. This protocol compares the caches of all cores to maintain data consistency. The L3 cache thus has less functions of a cache, but is intended to simplify and speed up the cache coherency protocol and the data exchange between the cores.

As modern processors now contain several data cores - so-called cores - the manufacturers have already donated a third cache, the L3 cache, to these multi-core processors. All processor cores work together, which is particularly beneficial in parallel processing. This allows data shared by different CPU cores to be retrieved from the fast L3 cache. Without it, these data would always come from the slow main memory. In addition, the L3 cache also facilitates data management with multiple CPU cores and caches (data coherency).

Google Leak Reveals Pixel 2 'Shape Change'

Google Pixel 2: Code names indicate pixel successors and a new Nexus

Google, the internet giant is working on pixel 2. Now for the first time the codenames of the new Google smartphones have been revealed. So the pixel 2 internally to the name "Walleye" and the pixel XL 2 to the name "Muskie". A third device with the code name "Taimen" provides for speculation. Does Google plan a new Nexus smartphone?Will Google work on three new smartphones for the year 2017? According to media reports, the company is developing the Google Pixel and the Google Pixel XL as codename "Walleye" and "Muskie". "Walleye" is the smaller Google pixel 2, "Muskie" is the Pixel XL 2, reports the usually well-informed US blog Android Police. A reference to "Walleye" has already been discovered in the Android source code.
According to the web page "Droid Life", "Taimen" is said to be another new Google smartphone, which will show a larger screen than Pixel XL 2 to the informer of the website. Possibly, the display will measure six inches in the diagonal. According to Droid Life, "Taimen" is not likely to be marketed under the "Google Pixel" brand. So far the information here is very daring.

This is what the code names mean

What do the code names "Walleye", "Muskie" and "Taimen" mean? Traditionally, Google is designing new devices internally for fish and / or fish species, which was earlier in the Nexus smartphones. So the Nexus 6 was called "Shamu" because of its size. A homage to the killer whale from the SeaWorld shows.

The Nexus 5X was developed under the codename "Bullhead", the English term for catwels. The first pixel devices internally on Google called "Sailfish" (fanfish) and "Marlin" (spearfish). "Walleye" and "Muskie" are also fish species. "Walleye" is the English name for glass eye bass. Taimen, on the other hand, is a very large species of salmon.

Google Pixel 2 - Release, price and rumors

Google will unveil 2017 presumably successor for its pixel smartphones. In the net, first rumors circulate to a supposed Google pixel 2. The summarize of what Mono-live.com knew so far about the new Google smartphones.

In 2016 Google introduced its Nexus series and replaced the device family with the new product range Google Pixel. With the five-inch Google pixel and the 5.5-inch Google Pixel XL, the manufacturer launched two smartphones under the new name on the market. Both devices, however, did not differ from the size.

This year, Google will probably present successors for the pixel devices. In the following you will learn what Mono-live.com knew about the Google Pixel 2 and the Pixel XL 2.

Release: When will the new Google smartphones appear?

There is not yet a release date for Google Pixel 2 and Pixel XL 2. The first pixel smartphones appeared on 4 October 2016. It is therefore to be expected that Google will bring the successors in October 2017 on the market.

Price: How expensive are the new pixel smartphones

Also unclear is how expensive the new Google smartphones will be. Both the Google pixel and the pixel XL were anything but favorable. The prices began at 759 and 899 euros respectively. Currently there are rumors that Google will release a more affordable pixel model this year. However, this remains to be seen.

Harvard Scientists Use Simple Materials to Create Semi Soft Robots

Biologically Inspired Soft Robots

George Whitesides towards the start of the decade had assisted in rewriting the rules of what a machine could be with the improvement of biologically inspired soft robots and is now ready to rewrite it once again with the support of some plastic drinking straws. Whitesides together with Alex Nemiroski a former postdoctoral fellow in Harvard lab of Whitesides had been encouraged by arthropod insects and spiders and have developed a kind of semi-soft robot which is capable of standing and walking.

 The team has also developed a robotic water strider with the skill of pushing itself along the liquid surface. The robots have been defined in a recent paper published in the journal Soft Robotics. The new robots unlike the earlier generations of soft robots that could stand and walk uncomfortably by filling air chambers in their bodies are designed to be extremely quicker.

The researchers are expecting that the robots would finally be utilised in search operations, even though practical applications seems to be far away, in an event of natural calamities or in conflict zones. The Woodford L and Ann A. Flowers University Professor at Harvard, Whitesides stated that if one looks around the world, there are plenty of things like spiders and insects that are very agile.

Flexible Organisms on Planet

They can move rapidly, climb on various items and are capable of doing things which huge hard robot are unable to do due to their weight and form factor. They are among the most flexible organisms on the planet and the question was how we can build something like that.

The answer from Nemiroski was that it came in the form of one’s average drinking straw. He informed that it had all began from an observation which George had made that polypropylene tubes have an excellent strength-to-weight ratio. This gave rise to developing something which has more structural support than virtuously soft robots tend to have.

 That has been the building block and then they got inspiration from arthropods to figure out how to make a joint and how to use the tubes as an exoskeleton. After that there was a question of how far one’s imagination can go and once you have a Lego brick, what type of castle can one build with it. He added that what they built was a surprisingly simple joint.

Whitesides, with Nemiroski had started by cutting a notch in the straws enabling them to bend. The scientists then inserted short lengths of tubing which on inflation forced the joints to spread. A rubber tendon linked on either side then caused the joint to retract when the tubing flattened.

Microcontroller Run By Arduino

The team equipped with the simple concept, built a one-legged robot capable of crawling and moved up in intricacy as they added a second and later a third leg enabling the robot to stand on its own. Nemiroski stated that with every new level of system complexity they would have to go back to the original joint, making modifications in building it to be capable of exerting more force or to be capable of supporting the weight of larger robots.

Eventually when they graduated to six- or eight- legged arthrobots, enabling them to walk, became a challenge from the point of view of programming. For instance it was viewed at the way ants and spiders sequence the motion of their limbs and then attempted to figure out if the aspects of these motions were applicable to what they were doing or if the need for developing their own kind of walking tailored to these specific kinds of joints.

 Though Nemiroski together with his colleagues accomplished in directing simple robots by hand, by utilising syringes, they resorted to computers in controlling the sequencing of their limbs since the designs amplified by way of complexity. He informed that they had put together a microcontroller run by Arduino which tends to utilise valve together with a central compressor that enabled them the freedom to evolve their gait swiftly.

Motion of Joint – Binary – Simplicity of Valving System

Although Nemiroski along with his colleagues had been skilful in reproducing the distinctive `triangle’ gait of ants utilising their six-legged robot, imitating a spider-like gait, proved to be far riskier. He added that a spider has the tendency of modulating the speed which it extends and contracts its joints to carefully time which limbs are moving forward and backward at any point.

Nemiroski further added that however in our case, the motion of the joint is binary owing to the simplicity of our valving system. You either switch the valve to the pressure source to inflate the balloon in the joint and extend the limb or switch the valve to atmosphere in order to deflate the joint and thus retract the limb. In the case of the eight-legged robot, the gait compatible had to be developed with binary motion of the joints.

Though it was not a brand new gait but they could not accurately duplicate how a spider tends to move for this robot. Nemiroski stated that developing a scheme which can modify the swiftness of actuation of legs would be a useful objective for future exploration and would need programmable control over the flow rate supplied to each joint.

Academic Prototypes

Whitesides is of the belief that the techniques utilised in their development especially the use of daily off-the-shelf stuff can point the way toward future innovation, though it would take years before the robots make their way in the real world applications.

He stated that he does not see any reason to reinvent wheels and if one looks at drinking straws, they can make them all, effectively at zero cost together with great strength and so why not use them? They are academic prototypes and hence they tend to be very light weight though it would be quite easy to imagine building these with a lightweight operational polymer which could hold a considerable weight.

Nemiroski added that what is really attractive here is the simplicity and this is something George had been championing for some time and something which he grew to appreciate deeply while in his lab.