Atomic Movies May Help Explain Why Perovskite Solar Cells Are More Efficient

Perovskites – Cheap/Easy/Flexible 

Perovskites has taken the solar cell industry by storm in recent years. They tend to be cheap, easy in producing as well as flexible in their applications.

Moreover their efficiency in converting light into electricity has developed quicker than that of any other material from under 4% in 2009 to over 20% in 2017, where some of the experts are of the belief that Perovskites Solar Cells could ultimately outperform the most common solar cell material, silicon. However, irrespective of their reputation, researchers are not aware why perovskites solar cells tend to be so efficient.

Research had been carried out with powerful `electron camera’ at the Department of energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory which has now revealed that light whirls atoms around in perovskites, potentially explaining the high efficiency of these next –generation solar cell materials as well as provides clues in making improved ones.

 Aaron Lindenberg from Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences – SIMES and the Stanford PULSE Institute for ultrafast science that had jointly operated by Stanford University and SLAC, had stated that they have taken a step towards resolving the mystery.

He further added that they had recorded movies which tend to show that certain atoms in a perovskite seem to respond to light within trillionths of a second in a very unusual manner.

 

Flexibility Based on Atomic Structure of Material

 
This could facilitate the transport of electric charges through the material and enhance its efficiency. The study had been published recently in Science Advances. When light is said to shine on perovskites solar cell material, its energy tends to displace some of the negative charged electrons of the material.

This is inclined to leave behind `electron holes’ having positive charge where the electrons had initially been located. Electrons and holes tend to migrate in opposite sides of the material thereby developing a voltage which could be utilised to power electrical devices. The efficiency of perovskites solar cell seems to depend on how freely electrons as well as holes tend to move in the material.

In turn, their flexibility is based on the atomic structure of the material. In silicon solar cells for instance, silicon atoms is said to line up in an orderly manner within crystals as well as the smallest structural defects tend to reduce the ability of the material to harvest light efficiently.

As a consequence, silicon crystals need to be grown in costly multistep process under very clean conditions while perovskites are said to be produced with the combination of chemicals in a solvent that tends to evaporate to leave an extremely thin film of perovskite material according to the study’s lead author from SIMES at SLAC, Xiaoxi Wu.

 

Lower Cost/Lightweight

 
He further added that simpler processing would mean lower costs and unlike silicon solar cells, perovskite thin films seems to be lightweight as well as flexible and can be applied with ease to virtually any surface. With regards to perovskites what is it that permits some of them to harvest light in an efficient manner?

Scientists are of the opinion that one of the keys is how their atoms tend to move in reaction to light. In order to get a better understanding, Wu together with his colleagues researched on these motions in a prototype material made of iodine, lead together with an organic molecule known as methylammonium.

 The iodine atoms tend to be arranged in octohedra, eight-sided structures which seems like two pyramids that is joined towards the base. The lead atom tends to sit inside the octohedra and the methylammonium molecule is between octohedra.

The architecture seems common to several of the perovskites investigated for perovskites solar cell applications. The earlier research could have explored mostly the role of the mehylammonium ions together with their motions in transporting electric charge through the material.
 

Light Cause of Huge Deformation in Network

 
Wu had stated that they had found that light is the cause of huge deformations in the network of lead and iodine atoms which tend to be crucial for the efficiency of perovskites. At the Accelerator Structure Test Area – ASTA of SLAC, the researchers had initially hit a perovskite film which was less than two millionths of an inch thick having a 40-femtosecond laser pulse.

One femtosecond is said to be a millionth of a billionth of a second and in order to determine the atomic response, they directed a 300-femtosecond pulse of highly energetic electrons via the material and noticed how the electrons had been deflected in the film. This system known as ultrafast electron diffraction – UED enabled them to reconstruct the atomic structure. The speedy improvement of perovskite solar cells has enhanced them in the photovoltaics world as well as of high interest to the academic community.

While the operational system seems to be comparatively new, there are possibilities of additional research in the basic physics and chemistry regarding perovksites. Moreover, from observations of past two years, the engineering development of perovskite formulation together with the fabrication sequences has given rise to significant increases in power conversion efficiency.

Energy Storage Solution Combines Polymers and Nanosheets

Fresh Lightweight Composite Material – Energy Storage 

 

According to a team of Penn State scientists a fresh lightweight composite material for the purpose of energy storage in flexible electronics, electric vehicles and aerospace application has experimentally revealed energy storage at operating temperatures beyond present commercial polymers.

The said polymer-based ultrathin energy storage material can be produced utilising techniques which are already being used in industry. Professor of materials science and engineering, Penn State, Qing Wang had stated that this is part of a series of work which had been done in the lab on high temperature dielectrics for use in capacitors.

 Prior to this work they had developed a composite of boron nitride nanosheets and dielectric polymers, though had realized that there had been significant issues with scaling that energy storage material up economically’. The defining challenge for several of the new, two-dimensional energy storage materials that are being established in academic labs is scalability or making advanced materials in commercially significant quantities for devices.

Wang has mentioned that `from a soft material perspective, 2D materials are fascinating though how to mass produce them is a question. Moreover, being able to combine them with polymeric materials is a key feature for future flexible electronics applications and electronic devices’.

Functional Dielectric Device-

 

In order to resolve this issue, his lab collaborated with a group at Penn State operating in two-dimensional crystals. Nasim Alem, assistant professor of materials science and engineering as well as a faculty member in Penn State’s Centre for 2-Dimensional and Layered Materials had stated that the work had been conceived in conversations between his graduate students, Amin Azizi together with graduate student of Dr Wang, Matthew Gadinski. He further informed that this was the first strong experiment wherein a soft polymeric material together with a hard 2D crystalline material had come together in order to develop a functional dielectric device.

Azizi who presently is a post-doctoral fellow at University of California, Berkeley and Gadinski, a senior engineer at DOW Chemical had generated a technique utilising chemical vapour deposition in order to make multilayer, hexagonal boron-nitride nanocrystal films to transfer the films to both areas of a polyetherimide (PEI) film.

Thereafter they bonded the films together by utilising force on the three-layer sandwich structure. In the outcome which was surprising to the researchers, pressure itself without the need of any chemical bonding had been adequate in making a free-standing film essentially strong to potentially be manufactured in a high-throughput roll-to-roll process.

 

Hexagonal Boron Nitride – Wide Band Gap Material

 

In a recent issue of the journal Advanced Materials in a paper titled `High-performance Polymers Sandwiched with Chemical Vapour Deposited Hexagonal Boron Nitrides as Scalable High-Temperature Dielectric Materials’, the results had been reported. Hexagonal boron nitride is said to be a wide band gap material having high mechanical strength.

 Its wide band gap tends to make it a worthy insulator, protecting the PEI film from dielectric breakdown at high temperatures, the cause for failure in the other polymer capacitors. Above 176 degrees Fahrenheit, at operating temperatures, the prevailing best commercial polymers begins to lose its efficiency though hexagonal-boron-nitride-coated PEI tends to function at high efficiency at above 392 degrees Fahrenheit.

The coated PEI seems to be stable for over 55,000 charge-discharge cycles in testing even at high temperature. Wang has mentioned that `theoretically all these high performance polymers which seem to be so commercially valuable could be coated with boron nanosheets in order to block charge injection. He further added that he is of the opinion that this would make this technology feasible for forth-coming commercialization.

 

Supported – U.S. Office/National Science Foundation 

Alem has also commented that there are several devices that are made with 2D crystals at the laboratory scale; however the defects tend to make them an issue for manufacturing. With the help of huge band-gap material such as boron nitride, it tends to do a good work in spite of the fact that small microstructural features could not be perfect.

 The first-principles calculations resolute that the electron barrier recognized at the interface of the PEI/hexagonal boron-nitride structure as well as the metal electrodes practical to the structure for the purpose of delivering current was said to be significantly higher than typical metal electrode-dielectric polymers contacts, thus making energy storage materials more complex for charges from the electrode to get injected into the film.

This task had been done by the theoretical research group of Long-Qing Chen, Professor of Materials, Science and Engineering, professor of engineering science and mechanics as well as mathematics – Penn State, Donald W. Hamer. Several others contributing to this work comprise of post-doctoral scholar Qi Li as well as graduate student Feihua Liu in the lab of Wang, undergraduate Mohammed Abu AlSaud in the lab of Alem, senior scientist Jianjun, Wang, post-doctoral scholar Yi Wang together with graduate student Bo Wang who were all from the Chen group at that point of time. This work had also been supported by the U.S. Office of Naval Research as well as the National Science Foundation.

Samsung Galaxy S8 Active Leak Shows Lot of Compromises

New Leak: Samsung Galaxy S8, shows a lot of compromises

The next Samsung top model Galaxy S8 will come in two versions, but this does not affect the edge of the screen. After some leaks in the past days and weeks, the two S8 variants comes together.

At the Mobile World Congress last week, the Samsung Galaxy S8 and the large version Galaxy S8 +, yet the next flagship of the Koreans is the theme of the hour. If you are interested in the MWC, please contact us.

Fingerprint sensor of the Galaxy S8

The goal is to integrate the fingerprint into the display. Samsung's decision to relocate the fingerprint sensor to the back of the device with its upcoming smartphone Galaxy S8 has not caused much joy for a number of users. The solution, which is also preferred by the company, but technically did not manage.

"Samsung has put a lot of resources into the technology presented by Fingerprint specialist Synaptics last year, but the results were frustrating," South Korean economic magazine The investor cited to the informed source. The result is the displacement of the sensor on the backside next to the camera.

5.7 and 6.2 inches

Now you can still sleep your curiosity in terms of the sizes of the two S8 models, because on the side SlashLeaks (via The Verge) a picture has appeared, which shows the two smartphones side by side. The smaller is, of course, the conventional Galaxy S8, which brings a 5.7-inch screen, next to the 6.2-inch version can be seen.

The data on the two screens are unconfirmed, but it is apparent that customers will actually get a lot of display for their money. Because 5.7 inches is diagonal, which was previously reserved for the Galaxy Note 7.

Samsung Galaxy S8

Source of the current Leaks is a manufacturer of screen protectors. Technical data, the current Leak has not been tested yet.

Samsung will offer a Snapdragon 835 or an Exynos 9 Series 8895, depending on the market, as a chipset. In addition, four gigabytes of RAM and a QHD display with an (unusual) aspect ratio of 18.5: 9.
Chance for Apple

Synaptics had officially launched its on-screen technology last December. This should not have been too late. But the process suggests that the supplier leaned too far out of the window and the technology could not meet the quality requirements of Samsung.

This is, of course, the chance for Apple to grab. The competitor is also in charge of the device. Until the presentation of the next Apple smartphones goes so a few months into the country, which can be of course decisive, in order to get quality necessary for a market maturity of the technology.

Automatic Toothbrush That Takes Just 10 Seconds To Clean Your Entire Mouth

First Fully Automatic Toothbrush

An unusual automatic toothbrush which could help the user in the early hours of the morning in cleaning their teeth and remove plaque in only 10 seconds will be coming up shortly. It is said to the first fully automatic toothbrush in the world. Its patent pending device which brushes all the teeth at once is totally automatic and completes the cleaning in only ten seconds.

All that is needed is to press a single button, wait for ten seconds and the user will have perfectly clean teeth. All the units of Amabrush seem to be equipped with a sound and light indicator which enables to signal several diverse information regarding the prevailing battery status, finished tooth-brushing sessions, flaws, together with other scenarios.

Moreover, their specifically formulated toothpaste has been provided in big bottles together with more durable as well as steady reusable toothpaste capsules. This would be economical in saving shipping fees as well as the complete cost for the user. According to its manufacturers, the brush seems like a bristly mouth guard that has the tendency of dispensing toothpaste and vibrates in order to clean every tooth. With the worldwide shipping beginning in December, customers can now pre-order the device for £70 ($90).

Bacteria-Resistant Silicone – 3D Bristles

In order to utilise the device, the user can put the toothbrush in their mouth and press on a button to begin the cleaning procedure. The system is said to utilise tailored toothpaste capsule that comes at a price of £2.60 ($3.40) and tends to last for around a month.

The manufacturers of this brush had stated that the device has been made from bacteria-resistant silicone featuring 3D bristles on both the sides. According to its inventors, the material is said to be adequately soft to avoid gum disease though hard enough to clean the teeth. They have also informed that since the material tends to be flexible, one type of size would be appropriate for both men as well as women.

The device is said to send out tough vibrations having amplitude of 9.5G, utilising a process to differ the waves of vibrations. The creators had mentioned on Kickstarter that `even in 10 seconds, every tooth surface has been cleaned longer compared with common brushes. If one brushes their teeth for the recommended 120 seconds with a regular toothbrush, every surface tends to get brushed for just 1.25 seconds.

Tooth-Brushing Less Troublesome

They have further added that Amabrush tends to brush all your surfaces for the whole of 10 seconds. The toothbrush would be required to be replaced once in two to three months in order to be effective as per the makers.

It accomplishes all the recommended methods where the bristles are aligned in a 45° angle against the line of the gum and are said to be adequately soft to rub rather than to scratch. Moreover the pressure against the teeth seems to be quite light and the subtle vibrations are said to move the bristles back and forth enabling them to eliminate the plaque, while keeping the gums from getting damaged.

It has been created to make tooth-brushing less troublesome where some may tend to hate brushing their teeth and may not brush the areas which need to be cleaned. Some may not be inclined in brushing correctly. The purpose of focus is – right tooth-brushing for one and all which is done automatically.

The Computer That Know What Humans Will Do Next

Computer Code – Comprehend Body Poses/Movement

A fresh computer code tends to provide robots with the possibility of an improved understanding of humans around them, making headway for more perceptive machines from self-driving cars to investigation. The new skill enables the computer to comprehend the body poses as well as movements of various people even to the extent of tracking parts as tiny as individual fingers.

Though humans tend to communicate naturally utilising body language, the computers tend to be somewhat blind to these interactions. However, by tracking the 2D human form and motion, the new code is said to improve greatly the abilities of the robots in social situations.

A new code had been designed by the researchers at Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute by utilising the Panoptic Studio. The two-story dome has been equipped with 500 video cameras developing hundreds of views of individual action for a specified shot. Recording of the system portrays how the system views the movement of humans utilising a 2D model of the human form.

Panoptic Studio – Extraordinary View of Hand Movement

This enables it to trail motion from the recording of video in real time, capturing everything right from the gestures of the hand to the movement of the mouth. Besides this, it also has the potential of tracking several people at once.

Associate professor of robotics, Yaser Sheikh had stated that they tend to communicate mostly with the movement of the bodies as they tend to do with their voice. However computer seems to be more or less blind to it. Multi-person tracking gives rise to various challenges to computers and hand detections is said to be more of an obstacle.

The researchers, in order to overcome this, utilised a bottom-up approach localizing individual body area in an act. Thereafter the areas were associated with certain individuals. Though the image datasets on the hand of the human seemed quite restricted than those on the face or body, the Panoptic Studio provided extraordinary view of hand movement.

 A PhD student in robotics, Hanbyul Joo had stated that a distinct shot provides 500 views of individuals hand and also automatically interprets the position of the hand.

2D to 3D Models

He further added that hands tend to be too small to be interpreted by most of the cameras, but for the research they had utilised only 32 high-definition cameras though were still capable of building a huge data set. The method could ultimately be utilised in various applications for instance helping to enhance the ability of self-driving cars to predict pedestrian movements.

 It could also be utilised in behavioural diagnosis or in sports analytics. Researchers would be presenting their work CVPR 2017, the Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Conference, from July 21 -26 in Honolulu. Up to now they have released their code to several other groups in order to expand on its skills.

Finally, the team expects to move from 2D models to 3D models by using the Panoptic Studio in refining the body, face and hand detectors. Sheikh had mentioned that the Panoptic Studio had boosted their research and they are now capable of breaking through various technical barriers mainly as a result of the NSF grant 10 years back.

How an iOS Developer Just Uncovered the Next iPhone

The HomePod Firmware

Developer Guilherme Rambo thought that it could be a mistake when he had seen Apple’s release of firmware for the forthcoming HomePod speaker, which will not show up till December. Getting more curious over the issue, he had begun probing through the code where he had discovered and probably the last thing which he least expected was the next iPhone of Apple.

Rambo discovered in the HomePod not hints or rumours which had earlier been disclosed but Apple’s documentation of one of its largest releases in years. It endorses a fresh look with a slimmer bezel, an end of the home button together with a powerful new face-recognition feature. It seems to be the major bombshell of Apple leak in years, coming from Apple itself.

The HomePod firmware had first been seen on an official public update feed of Apple recently and Rambo had unpacked it with the intention of gathering anything of interest on how Apple’s Siri powered speaker would function before Apple had comprehended its error and had drawn the code. Similar to the iPhone, the HomePod tends to run iOS which is discreet.

Developers had access to a beta version of iOS 11 for over a month now. However, for a developer like Rambo of a Brazilian e-commerce company, he could quickly make a critical discovery. The HomePod firmware which had been released by Apple was iOS 11.0.2, was a full two patches ahead of what is publicly made available.

Face ID Feature

Supporting the discovery of Rambo, iOS developer Steven Troughton-Smith commented that `it was a process Apple goes through every year, to make sure developers can still access the upcoming iOS without disclosing too much about the unexpected iPhone which would be coming up at the final release’. Comprehending the prospective for discovery he had begun to work stating that he had decided to search for strings within the firmware which could be linked to the rumoured `Face ID’ feature.

He further added that he had searched for the word `face’ and observed that it matched many symbols in BiometricKit, which is the framework that presently handles Touch ID. These references do not prevail in the iOS 11 beta. Rambo kept on persisting with his probe into the issue.

An iPhone 8 does not make references to face recognition. Yet as Rambo went ahead in the investigation through BiometricKit, he came across similar expressions utilised in listing a fresh Touch ID finger `EnrollTouchID’ had a face-authentication counterpart - `EnrollPearlID’. `Pearl ID’ continued to appear all through his explorations, always linked to facial recognition.

Discovered Internal Codename

This may not stop to what Apple considers its face recognition feature but calling it Pearl ID at this stage probably had no intention of hiding its purpose. Troughton-Smith had stated that `the codename just makes it easier to find all the related pieces of code in the OS and by inspecting the code you can then see what type of function it has.

 When Rambo had seen it, it was an unreleased, unexpected Apple feature laid bare. Speculating what `Pearl ID’ meant, led him to a larger discovery. Rambo adds that during the exploration for references to `Pearl ID’ he located a reference to Pearl D-22 and decided to search for D22 and found that it is the internal codename for the `iPhone Pro’ or `iPhone 10’.

 Apple had left little doubts to what it could mean though there were not many D22 references. Rambo had located a file in the PassKit framework utilised by Wallet known as `Payment_glyph_phone-D22.caar’ which is a format type that Apple tends to utilise in storing vector graphics for animated UI elements. When Rambo had extracted that image he viewed an iPhone different from any he had seen earlier since it did not exist till then.

Significant Overhaul of iPhone

He also discovered another reference to D22 in a video file which was not present in the firmware, known as `Enrollment_Tutorial_Loop-D22’ that probably displays iPhone 8 owners on how to register their face with Pearl ID. Rambo had informed that there are some references in the firmware which recommend this D22 model would have a diverse battery charging system, though iOS 11.0.2 provides no hints to what those variances could be.

 The disclosures detail the unreleased iPhone of Apple to the earlier unthinkable degree excepting the early debut of iPhone 4 by Gizmodo in 2010. The slightly bezeled design together with the lack of a home button seems to mark the most significant overhaul of iPhone in years. The face-ID feature tends to be primed by the company, in being a focal point of the ultimate introduction of the phone.

 Troughton-Smith had stated that this could be a rough situation for Apple and for them to be the source of the only concrete leaks regarding it and its design would be to upset a lot of people internally. Beside embarrassment, the influence on actual sales could be subdued.

Internal Security of Apple – Slipped

The founder of Jackdaw Research, Jan Dawson, commented that he thinks that the kind of people probably to wait for a new iPhone based on leaks were possibly aware of all the reporting on the subject in advance.

He also observed that while this seems to confirm the prevailing rumours, the real test of the upcoming features of the iPhone is how well they function and firmware can only tell you so much. In this case, the main takeaway seems that the internal security of Apple has once more slipped as it occurred when macOS Sierra had shown off MacBook Pro with OLED touch panel of Apple, last fall, just a few days before the official unveiling of the product.

Apple had more time on the iPhone 8 than it had on its whole line of laptop put together and while airing it out a month before its announcement could have a material effect on the company and it certainly was not helpful. Tim Cook CEO of Apple had stated at the most recent earnings call of the company that they were seeing what they believe to be a pause in purchases of iPhone which they are of the belief is owing to the earlier and more frequent reports regarding the future iPhones.

Mono-Live.Com Gadget News: Moto G5S Plus

What is New in Moto G5S Plus

Motorola G5S Plus: New aluminum design and dual-cam

The G5S comes with Unibody metal housing, a particularly fast-focusing 16 megapixel camera, 3GB RAM, 32GB memory, Snapdragon 430 and 5.2-inch FullHD display. The 3000mAh battery should have enough power for 15 hours. Dual SIM, fingerprint sensor with the new Moto gestures are the other specifications of the LunarGrey and Fine Gold appearing G5S.

The 5.5-inch G5S Plus with similar specifications but a 5.5-inch display, stronger Snapdragon 625 comes with an f / 2.0 dual camera, which has 13 megapixels and a somewhat sharper 8 megapixel self-camera with wide angle. It dominates to boot 4K video at 30fps and has NFC as well as 5Ghz Wifi (both features with which the G5S can not adorn itself).

With NightDisplay and QuickReply the software of the two motos has also learned new tricks. For the Moto G5S Plus, of course, everything depends on the camera software, which connects the two lenses, but we hoped because of Motorola's experience only good.

Whether it is the two synonymous in other specifications (4GB RAM, 64GB of memory were in conversation) in some countries, is currently unclear, because the Motorola site does not list them.

Just a few months after the launch of the Moto G5S and its plus version announces the successor somewhat early. The Moto G5S Plus is likely to be officially launched soon and will bring new hardware as well as a detachment of the plastic housing. Here, too, there will be an aluminum design in the future.

The Moto G5S Plus also has a metal housing. The display is 5.5 inches slightly larger than the Moto G5S. The device is powered by a Qualcomm-Snapdragon-Octa-Core processor with a clock frequency of up to 2.0 GHz. 4G LTE is also supported.

The battery of the Moto G5S Plus has a capacity of 3,000 mAh and can also be recharged via the quick charging function TurboPower. The fingerprint sensor allows, in addition to unlocking the smartphone, some other functions. In addition, the Moto G5S Plus, like the Moto G5S, also features such as a night display and a quick response function.

Evan Blass once again surprised us with marketing material for the future Moto G5S Plus from Motorola aka Lenovo. The pictures shows a new aluminum housing design of the Midranger, which fits better into the current Motorola lineup by Motorola. On the back, Motorola has donated a Dual Cam to the Moto G5 Plus successor, which consists of two 13 megapixel sensors, one RGB and one monochrome lens. Now, Motorola's midrange offer is now also possible bokeh effects and b / w recording.

At the front, Lenovo has exchanged the 5 megapixel shooter of the predecessor for an 8 megapixel camera. The display is somewhat larger with 5.5 inch diagonal but remains at full HD resolution. The Snapdragon 625-SOC provides midrange performance with a maximum of 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of memory. Whether the Moto G5S Plus is officially presented during the global launch event on July 25 is not certain. Also the Moto X4 and the two high-end devices Moto Z2 and Moto Z2 Force are still waiting for their official launch.

Nuna9 Solar Car Revealed

Nuna9 - Revolutionary

Nuna9 has been designed differently from anything that has ever been created in the solar racing world and the most significant aerodynamic change is that the nose of the Nuna9 has now become more compact and does not tend to overhang any longer.

 The organisers of the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge tend to control the regulations for each edition. The solar panel this year is only allowed to be a maximum of 4 m² in comparison to 6 m² in the earlier race. The team aerodynamicist, Jasper Hemmes, had explained that the design of Nuna9 tends to signify a new step ahead in solar racing.

As a consequence of the change to the World Solar challenge regulation, the need of a smaller solar panel had been utilised on cars of this year. This could mean that they had to make dramatic modifications to the car and eventually they had reached at this exceptional shape. The details of the solar car had not been kept undisclosed till date, from the competitors.

Sander Koot, team captain had stated that Nuna9 is revolutionary and the shape of the car is totally different to the earlier solar cars. They wanted to keep the new shape a secret for as long as possible to refrain from letting the competition in the open.

Take on the Dutch Nuna9

In recent years, the gap between the different teams during the race had been lessening down. They also had seen elements of the earlier solar cars reflected in what the other teams had been in the race. It had been naturally important to them once again in bringing home the world championship title this year.

This was the reason why the TU Delft students have kept the interior of the car away from interfering eyes. Sander chuckled that they do not want to go giving them ideas. After winning the race on various cases as well as the reigning world champion, the Nuon Solar Team is said to be the clear favourite to take the title home in Australia.

The controllers of the race have now been utilising the slogan `Take on the Dutch’ in order to challenge teams from across the world to try and overcome the team from TU Delft. To characteristically direct their winning mentality, the team had intended to mount a lion’s mane on their solar car.

Mane of Lion – Symbolic of Dutch Pride/Glory

Sarah Bennink Bolt, a member of the team had explained that the mane radiates strength and the larger the lion’s mane, the stronger and more invincible he is. The mane of the lion is also symbolic of Dutch pride and glory. The Nuon Solar Team for this year tends to comprise of sixteen students.

They will be defending their world title in October 2017 during the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge with Nuna9, their self-built solar car. The TU Delft students had won the race in total of six times inclusive of the last edition of the race in 2015. They had covered over 3,000 kilometres and the track had stretched around Australia, from Darwin to Adelaide.

How to Record Calls on Your Smartphone

Seek Permission before Recording

Recording a call is said to be one of the most reliable means of capturing a conversation though not very convenient. It needs an external gadget which can be linked to a digital recorder to the base and handset of a desk phone. With the entry of smartphones, this has turned out to be quite easy in most areas; though a disappointment since none of the leading mobile operating systems have included a built-in call recorder.

This could be due to some countries or states having a law against recording call without the consent of all parties in the conversation. However in the present scenario, smartphone apps together with cloud services tend to make recording conversations easy and convenient irrespective of chatting with White House officials or not.

Anthony Scaramucci, as Communications Director of White was out after ten days owing to an open late-night phone conversation with New Yorker writer, Ryan Lizza. Similar to most of the journalists, Lizza had recorded his call not for successors but for proof and with audio evidence it tends to get difficult to debate on that issue.

State laws tends to differ significantly with regards to recording phone calls and some may need both parties to approve in recording the conversation and hence it is essential to check the laws of the state and seek permission before indulging in recording. Recording conversation can be done by:

Using an App

iPhone or Android devices do not come with a built-in call recorder though their respective app stores come with a variety of options for downloading.

TapeACall 

This seems to be a favourite with the journalists since the app is made available on iOS as well as Android at $10, which makes recording easy as setting up a three-way call. You could dial the TapeACall line and dial the person you would prefer to talk to and merge the two calls in a conference. The recordings are saved within the app and one can share them through Dropbox, Google Drive or Evernote.

It tends to put out a free version too though one can access only the first 60 seconds of the recording. If one intends talking for over a minute, it is worth indulging for the Pro version. As the app tends to utilise a three-way calling in order to record the conversation, one would need to have a service plan which can sustain three-way calls.

Recording – Privacy Violation 

There are also several other apps which enables you to record for free such as Another Call Recorder for Android. Google Voice also tends to provide free recording but the procedure tends to be a bit fussy One needs to first enable call recording on the account of Google Voice and then can record when calls comes in to your Google Voice number.

The service also tends to announce when the recording has started. When one hangs up, Google tends to save the recording right into your inbox. Recording calls is said to be a privacy violation though there could be several useful reasons for the same. It can be beneficial while conducting phone interviews or in receiving complicated instructions which would be difficult to note down or when one would prefer storing an intimate moment of some personal event, on their phone.

Code Quality And Selling Call Option As Major Parts Of Technical Debt

Majority of developers are looking for technical debt, when they are associated with the engineering department. The front office members are always in lookout for work, directly with the traders and exposed in real time for covering their software needs. While planning to sit with traders, you can check on immediate impact of recent forms of feature additions. The feedback loop seems to be quite tight.

In the past, the engineers have come to work and received feature request early in trading session. It further works with change in code, deployed to production level and seen profits as part of same trading day. During such environment, you might think about caring more on the added features than what you need to do for creating that elegant software.

Cannot ignore code quality

You cannot even ignore the quality of your code, mainly because of its impact on current delivery speed. You will always come handy with constant form of internal personal struggle, which is associated in between keeping quality alive and delivering features at level, which can enable high speed delivery service. The technical debt seems to be quite visible and reminders are given to ensure that you get the chance to address technical debt in future without fail.

Importance of reminders

You cannot deny the importance of reminders in place of technical debt. As mentioned already, these reminders are designed to help to remind you of the technical debt to be solved in future. There are same reminders, used for prioritizing technical debt payoff, which can be quite beneficial for the team. The traders are quite aware of the value associated with technical debt. It is during such instances that you need to get some questions answered first. Do you have to spend more time while paying down technical debt? Get the answer to your question first before coming to concluding point.
Issues to focus on

Working in such an environment where traders are able to learn more about technical debt and know ways to pay it off is really great. However, this might give rise to some issues, which are part and parcel of technical debt. If you want to know more about the issues, then it is mandatory to visit here and get yourself the needful details. Remember that not all bad codes are technical debt. It can even be un-hedged call option. So, it is important to know more about the types first before you get to learn more about it.

Selling call option is great

While going through the types, you might have an idea of selling call option. It is quite a great metaphor, but the problem lies somewhere else. Can selling a call option work well in average workplace? This is the point for you to focus at before you harp on working on the call options. This is going to act in your favor and present you with long lasting response. Just be sure of the consequences and everything else before you get down to the solutions now over here.

Aston Martin’s Valkyrie Hypercar Gets Closer To Production

The Aston Martin Valkyrie

Aston Martin and F1 team Red Bull Racing had revealed their innovative hypercar dubbed AM-RB 001 in July 2016. At the Geneva Motor show, the real name of the car had been eventually disclosed to the world - `The Aston Martin Valkyrie’.

It comes charged with crafting a road car built exceptional invention partnership with Red Bull and Aston Martin wherein the collaboration had designed a car similar to which has not been seen till now. The designer Marek Reichaman of Aston Martin and Adrian of Red Bull Racing have been working together on all aspects of the project striving to make sure that the care is totally useable as well as enjoyable as a road car though with the potential of performing like no other road car on a race track.

For those interested in driving experience, a track-only version is in progress and the probable performance is in line with the prevailing LMP1 Le Mans sports prototypes. Valkyrie tends to continue the tradition of `V’ cars of Aston Martin that had started in 1951 with the Vantage and had been selected as a name to distinguish high performance variants of the present model, the DB2. It continued this lineage in the Virage, Vanquish and Vulcan.

Fabricated Around Lightweight Carbon Fibre Structure

The Valkyrie, fabricated around a lightweight carbon fibre structure tends to have thorough aerodynamics which is said to deliver unique stages of down-force in a road-legal car wherein most of the down-force has been produced through the underfloor aerodynamics.

The same had been constructed by David King together with his team for purpose-built facility developed for the original hypercar, the One-77 of Aston Martins. The Valkyrie is said to be a hybrid, a reunion of a 6.5-litre V 12 with a type of electric powertrain developing more than 1,000 horsepower. There is a bespoke seven-speed paddle-shift transmission coupled to the all-new engine.

It has been designed and manufactured to the specifications of Ricardoto Red Bull Advanced Technologies, where the gearbox would be an appropriate partner to Cosworth’s V12 engine. Besides assigning the ultimate road-legal car, the Valkyrie also tends to boast of a lightweight hybrid battery system provided by Rimac. The Croatian company, recognized as the world leaders in high performance battery technology, has also showcased its competences with the innovative Concept-One which is said to be the first and the fastest electric hypercar in the world.

AM-RB 001 Needs Braking System

Comprising of a power-to-weight ratio of 1:1 – 1 horsepower for each kilogram of kerbweight, the AM-RB 001 needs a braking system which tends to be more than equal of its powertrain. Alcon and Surface Transforms, together tend to be responsible in supplying the lightweight, high performance brake calipers together with carbon discs required in delivering the stopping power.

Electronic experts, Bosch, Transmission Control Unit –TCU and Electronic Stability Programme – ESP has been entrusted with developing bespoke engine Control Unit – ECU, to permit maximum efficiency, performance together with dynamic control while UK light manufacturer, Wipac is in charge for the full LED headlamps and tail lamps of the hypercar.

Around 150 road-legal Aston Martin Valkyries would be constructed inclusive of all outstanding models with an additional track-only versions of 25, have been planned. The first deliveries are scheduled to begin in 2019.

How Hackers Hijacked a Bank’s Entire Online Operation

Extraordinary Incident of Wholesale Bank Fraud Done by Hackers

Hacking a bank is not different from the out-dated means of raiding it and hackers can get in and out with the goods quite easily. However a particular enterprising team of hackers aiming a Brazilian bank seemed to take a much more inclusive and a scheming method of operation.

On a certain weekend afternoon, they had rerouted all the online customers of the bank to effortlessly reconstructed fakes of the bank’s properties wherein the marks offered over their information of the accounts. The researchers at Kapersky the security firm had defined an extraordinary incident of wholesale bank fraud, which had basically hijacked the complete internet footprint of the bank.

 Last year, on October 22 at 1 pm, the researchers had stated that the hackers had altered the Domain Name System registration of all 36 online properties of the bank, taking the desktop and mobile website domains of the bank to take users to phishing site. That meant that the hackers had the potential of stealing login credentials at the sites which had been hosted at the legitimate web addresses of the bank.

The researchers of Kaspersky were of the belief that the hackers could have also simultaneously redirected most of the transactions at ATMs or point-of-sale systems to their own servers, gathering the details of the credit card of anyone who utilised their card on that Saturday afternoon.

Malware Infecting Customers

One of the researchers of Kaspersky, Dmitry Bestuzhey, who had analysed that attack in real time on seeing malware infecting customers from what seemed to be the fully valid domain of the bank, had stated that absolutely all of the bank’s online operations had been under the control of the attackers for five to six hours.

From the point of view from the hackers, according to Bestuzhey, the DNS attack meant that `you become the bank and everything belongs to you now’. Kaspersky has not revealed the name of the bank which had been targeted in the DNS redirect attack. He has stated that it seems to be a major Brazilian financial company with hundreds of branches, operations in the US and the Cayman Islands, with 5 million customers and over $27 billion in assets.

Though Kaspersky is not aware of the full extent of the damage caused due to the takeover, it should be a warning to banks all over to consider how the insecurity of their DNS would support a nightmarish loss of control of their core digital assets. Bestuzhev had commented that they have never seen it exploited in the wild on such a big scale.

DNS – Vital Decorum Under Cover of Internet

The Domain Name System – DNS tends to serve as a vital decorum running under the cover of the internet and translates domain names in alphanumeric characters such as Google.com, to the IP addresses such as 74.125.236.195, which tends to represent the definite locations of the computers hosting websites or other services related on those machines.

 However attacking the records could take the sites down or redirect them to a destination of a hackers’ choice. For instance, in 2013, the Syrian electronic Army groups of hacker had changed the DNS registration of The New York Times in redirecting visitors to a page with their logo. Recently, the Mirai Botnet attack on the DNS provider Dyn had cracked a main portion of the web offline inclusive of Amazon, Reddit and Twitter.

However the attackers of Brazilian bank had subjugated their victim’s DNS in a much more directed and profit-driven manner. Kaspersky was of the belief that the hackers compromised the account of the bank at Registro.br which is the domain registration service of NIC.br, the registrar for the sites ending in the Brazilian .br top-level domain which is said that it also manages the DNS for the bank.

Changing Registrar – Domains of Bank

The researchers are of the opinion that with that access, the hackers had been capable of changing the registrar at the same time for all the domains of the bank, redirecting them to servers which the attackers had set up on the Cloud Platform of Google.

With the hijacking of the domain, those visiting the website URL of the bank were redirected to the duplicate sites where those sites also had valid HTTPS certificates issued in the name of the bank. Hence those visitors’ browsers portrayed a green lock together with the name of the bank like they would in the real sites. Kaspersky also observed that the certificates was provided six months earlier by Let’s Encrypt, the non-profit certificate authority which makes obtaining an HTTPS certificate easy in case of increasing HTTPS acceptance.

 Josh Aas, founder of Let’s Encrypt had stated that `if an entity had gained control of DNS and had gained effective control over a domain, there could be a possibility for that entity to get a certificate from them. Such issuance would not constitute mis-issuance on their part since the entity receiving the certificate would have been able to properly demonstrate control over the domain’.

Hoaxed Sites Infected with Malware

Eventually the hijack had been so thorough that the bank was unable to even send email. Bestuzhev stated that they could not even communicate with the customers to send them an alert and if your DNS is in control of the cybercriminals, you are basically screwed’. Besides phishing, the hoaxed sites also infected victims with malware download which had disguised itself as an update to the Trusteer browser security plug-in which the Brazilian bank provided the customers.

As per the analysis of Kaspersky the malware gathers not only banking logins from the Brazilian banks but also eight others as well as email and FTP credentials together with contact lists from Outlook and Exchange. All of these had gone to command-and-control server hosted in Canada. The Trojan also comprised of an operation intended to disable antivirus software for infected victim, and could have persisted much beyond the five hour window when the attack had taken place.

The malware had scraps of Portuguese language, implying that the attackers could have been Brazilian. Bestuzhev of Kaspersky debates that for the banks the incident could have been a clear warning to check on the security of their DNS. He notes that half of the top 20 banks ranked by total assets do not manage their DNS but tend to leave it in the hands of a potentially hackable third party and irrespective of who tends to control the DNS of a bank they can take special precautions in preventing their DNS registrations from being changed without safety checks such as `registry lock’, which some registrars tend to provide together with two-factor authentication making it difficult for hackers to change them.

Mono-Live Gadget Review: Sonnet Will Turn Your Phone Into Off-Grid Life Saver

Sonnet – Off-Grid Hexagon

Sonnet which is an off-grid hexagon tends to connect to your phone providing the potential of sending messages or even maps without the need of a cellular or satellite signals. It is the most advanced off-grid Mobile Mesh network and is like a walkie-talkie for your phone.

 It tends to have global offline maps, together with a panic button to send an SOS signal as well as a 4000mAh battery to charge your phone when it is on low charge. Our phones are dependent on mobile network and are unable to keep the user connected when the mobile network is inaccessible or defective like on instance when one is

• Travelling the backcountry and the network is not available or could have very light coverage 
• Traveling abroad and the network tends to be unreliable or very expensive 
• Attending crowded events where the network tends to be slow and congested having too many users around the place 
• Encountering a natural disaster where the network service tends to get disrupted or totally damaged 

Walkie-talkies have a tendency of functioning anywhere though they could be:

• Massive and burdensome and some may weigh tons while carrying them around the place 
• Complex and unintuitive where plenty of tuning and setup may be needed before it could be utilised 
• Very low-quality audio with no text, image. It tends to have bad audio which may at times lead to miscommunication

 

Sonnet Super Advanced Walkie-Talkie

 
Sonnet being an Off-the-Grid communication device enables the user to utilise their smartphone as a super advanced walkie-talkie which has the possibility of sending super advanced walkie-talkie that can send instant message, image data, voice recording as well as GPS Coordinates in the absence of cellular coverage’s and internet access.

Sonnet is said to bring about the long range wireless communication of the walkie-talkie to your smartphone and connect to the smartphone via Wi-Fi relaying any data sent from your phone to other sonnet devices through the long-range radio wave. This tends to remove totally the reliance of the smartphone on cellular grid and the other network infrastructure enabling it to be utilised when there is no cellular connectivity or internet access. It does not have any frequency to tune or channel to be set. The user could only connect and get started with chatting. One can utilise the Sonnet App just the way as any other instant messengers for:

• One-on-one private messages 
• Private group messages 
• Public messages to any users of Sonnet within the range.

 

Sonnet Equipped with SMA Connector

 
Sonnet App tends to run directly in the browser of the smartphone and hence one need not download or install any app. Sonnet is entirely off-the-grid and functions independently of any network infrastructure which means that Sonnet enables the user to remain in touch with friends and colleagues irrespective of where they may be.

 The usual point-to-point range between two devices of Sonnet is 5 km, around 3 miles. This range could be up to 15 km in case of a line-of-sight such as when the sender and the receiver seem to be on top of two mountains. Besides this, Sonnet is equipped with a SMA connector wherein one can connect their own directional antenna for the purpose of increasing the point-to-point range much further.

The mesh network of Sonnet tends to intensively increase the effective range further than the point-to-point range by relaying the data via the other devices. The data can be relayed by Sonnet up to 16 times in achieving a maximum range of 80 km. To use Sonnet there is no need of a subscription fee and one can send as many messages as one desires.

 

In Emergency – Panic Button

 
If one device tends to have internet connection, the entire network can then have access to it. If Sonnet is placed in a car or base where there is availability of internet, then one can have access to the internet in the backcountry by being in possession of another Sonnet. The Sonnet App had an offline map wherein one can get directions and view points of interest without the internet connection. In an event of emergency, the app which has a panic button comes in handy.

You could long press the button for five seconds to activate the SOS mode, broadcast your prevailing GPS location and your distress message is conveyed to all Sonnet users within range. Being equipped with a 4000 mAh lithium polymer battery, it comes with a USB port and hence one can charge your smartphone with it.

Sonnet tends to charge fully most of the smartphones on the market. Sonnet is said to have a rugged design making it compatible for the purpose of out-door use and is rated IP66 meaning that it is dust and water resistant.

This enables the user to bring the Sonnet along no matter where one may intend to travel. Sonnet is secure and all communications done with Sonnet are said to be end-to-end encrypted with AES -256-bit. Moreover, Wi-Fi link between Sonnet and the smartphone are said to be secure with WPA/WPA2.

New 4D Camera Designed by Stanford Researchers

Stanford researchers created a new camera to enhance virtual reality and robot vision

Robotics is advancing at a frantic pace and Stanford researchers giving it a new push by bringing such a technology which can play a remarkable role in its future. A new 4D camera has been built by the researchers which have the ability as the name suggests generating four dimensional images. Furthermore this camera can even capture images in 140 degrees which is unbelievable and one of a kind in itself. This camera will find its way in the robots in upcoming days where it will help them in airborne package deliveries by offering a remarkable view of surroundings.

Camera designed specifically with robots in mind

This 4 D camera has been developed by the team of researchers at the University of California, San Diego. This camera is designed with robots in minds therefore it comes loaded with some exquisite features like wider field of view, light weight and single lens rather the multiple lens used in the modern consumer electronics.

This camera will be showcased at the upcoming computer vision conference called CVPR 2017. Researchers had stressed the current demand of the robotics are quite heavy on the robots wherein they are required move around and gather information from different perspectives in order to understand the varied aspects of the environment.

This camera will help robots in gathering large amount of the information from a single image like never before.Researchers believe that this camera will find wider application in the autonomous vehicles along with the ever growing augmented and virtual reality technologies.

Desirable features for the robotics

If robotics and wearable technologies want to grow by leap and bounds then this new 4D camera will be a boon for them. It has some of the most desirable features like detailed depth information, wider field of view and ability to be manufactured in any shape or size. This would give a great boost of the imagining system incorporated in the robotics, augmented and virtual reality as well as the wearables.


When compared to the conventional cameras, the images taken from the 4 D camera offers a refreshing perspective of looking through a ‘window’ rather than a ‘peephole’. In normal 2D images users can move their head to gain more information but the images taken from this camera allows users to identify features such as shape, brightness, transparency and much more.

The best thing about this 4 D camera is that it can also function as the modern conventional camera at far distances. A unique feature about this camera is that it can enhance the close up images to a great extent which means it can be used for a really wide variety of tasks and operations like it can used in the small robots which tends to navigate small areas in the landing drones or self-driving vehicles.

 Its other characteristic of offering incredible depth information will come in handy in the augments and virtual reality system wherein it will be help in seamlessly rendering real scenes. It will also bring support for better amalgamation between the actual scenes as well as the virtual components in an efficient fashion.

Ways To Improve The Readability Of Technical Code And Avoid Falling Into Debt

There are multiple types of technical debt available, and each comes with some handy solutions. Depending on the type of core problem condition, the solutions are going to vary accordingly. One of the biggest types has to be associated with poor readability. There are loads of codes, which are written around for 5, 10 or even for 20 years. And those are to be maintained at a continuous rate and changed throughout the chosen time. The size of code, with growth, will try to make maintenance harder with passing time. It is important to make code readable, which is easier for changing or modifying later.

Ways to improve readability

There are multiple ways, which can help you to improve readability. It is important for you to know more about the ways, which can help in this segment and offer you with great response now. For the right step, you can even check on taking help from another set of eyes. Team members are likely to have developers, who will read the code. That will ensure that everyone can understand it well, and that will not help in creating any problem later. If other members can read your code, then other developers will be able to do the same.

Try following other norms

Apart from following the option of letting others read your code, there are some other ways available to maintain readability and improve the same. You can even try to break it in the best manner possible for easy readability. You are always invited to break codes into virtual modules for help. To work on that, it is mandatory to know the points. And to know the points, you can visit here for better response. For breaking the virtual modules, you can use comments, which can explain the intention of developers. It will help people to know more about next code piece too.

Check on the common issues

There are so many other ways and steps to perform to get readability of code checked and present you with long lasting responses. You can always choose to work on common codes for help. It is mandatory for you to use common and well-known practices for the codes. That will help the future developers to work comfortably on reading code. It can work wonder for your code and can prevent technical debt from hampering the condition of your firm, as well. Loads of options are waiting for your help now.

Avoid keeping secrets

You are asked to avoid keeping secrets, while working on technical codes. You are always asked to use some intention revealing names, associated with methods, variables and even classes to some of the self-document services. These are some of the important points to follow, while trying to improve the readability of the code and avoid falling into technical debt. So, the next time you face any of these problems, you know just the right steps to take for impeccable help. If you need any help, experts are more than happy to offer you with the same too.

Climbing Stairs Just Got Easier with Energy-Recycling Steps

Scientists make it easier to climb stairs with new age energy recycling steps

If you have trouble walking up and down stairs then researchers from Georgia Tech has a device meant just for you. They had been successful at making the world’s first energy recycling stairs which has the unique features of storing as well as returning the energy to the users while moving up and down the stairs. The working of this device is quite simple and right to the point which makes it easier for anyone to make use of it.

It has been found that this spring loaded stairs results in saving energy by 26 percent while going up or down the stairs. When some goes up using this device then it releases the stored energy and in the process it makes it 39 percent easier for the subject to move up the stairs. It also remains soft on the knees and seriously limits the amount of energy which is usually wasted while using the conventional stair cases. The best thing about this device is that it can be easily placed on the existing stairs without the need of even installing it permanently.

How this stairs works? 

The working of this energy recycling device has been defined by Karen Liu, an associate professor AT Georgia Tech. She explains that normal walking usually results dissipating energy with each heel strike which can be easily store and utilized in the ascent using this device. In order to achieve this functionality each stair is made up of springs which are equipped with pressure sensors. When a user walks downstairs the steps sinks and lock in a certain position which helps in storing the generated energy and when someone walks upstairs then this stored energy is released. Researchers are going to publish their findings in the journal called Public Library of Science PLOS ONE.

A simple idea with wider future application of Energy Recycling

 

The idea behind this device came to Liu when she attended a conference and got to see a unique ankle brace which effectively works on the basis on storing and releasing the energy. Secondly she also saw her 72 year old mother having grave walking difficulty and problems associated with climbing the steps. Thereon she got the idea of creating smart stairs rather than the sneakers.

Her device is extremely low cost which means wider number of people suffering from the knee and walking issues will be able to buy it. This energy recycling stairs can be easily installed in the home which isn’t possible when it comes to having stair lifts or elevators at home.

It is also believed that this device will allow users to maintain their mobility by allowing them to keep walking and moving around even through injury and it will eventually help in elevating the quality of life in the long run. When it comes to application this energy recycling stairs can act as the temporary stars at home, hospitals or old age homes where older people or people recovering from surgery are spending their time.

Multiple Attributes And Basic Forms Of Technical Debt

When it comes to development cycle, there are multiple places, where you are likely to come across technical debt. It might create some problems in near future for the product, which you have been developing for so long. For tackle such problems with technical debt, it is important to know more about the things, which are associated with technical debt first. Later, you have to learn more about the steps, which will help you to identify such debt related options and ways to address the presence in system. These points are likely to act in your favor and offer you with impressive a rewarding help now for sure.

Comprises of multiple attributes: 

Technical debt is known to have multiple attributes. Each comes with its own sets of symptoms, which can be stated as signals for increasing level of current tech debt in system.The first one to talk to has to be implementation debt. This type of attribute helps in manifesting itself as proper code duplication. It can further talk about code smells and static forms of tool rules. Another one to follow has to be architectural and design debt. It can be seen through design rule and design small violations.

Other types of attributes: 

Test debt is another form of attribute covering the technical debt segment. This might be due to lack of tests, or can be a result of inadequate coverage. It can further be a result of improper tests in the current code base. Another type of attribute to work on has to be documentation debt. Here, you will come across multiple results like lack of documentation or even poor documentation to name a few. It can also be stated to confirm documentation, which is entirely out of date. For other details, you have to be aware of the values and features revolving around technical debt.

Multiple forms of debts: 

The points, which have already been mentioned, are some tell-take signs that technical debt is associated with the base of the code. However, there are multiple other forms of debt, which can be well-presented in such scenario. These debts largely vary in why and how the development team is incurring the term, which states technical debt. Working on these points is always a great option to learn more about the packages available in this sector. If you want to know more about the solutions, then you can log online for better and rewarding help now.

Going for the basic types: 

You will be able to solve technical debt, if you know more about basic types. For that, you can check online to learn the details. The first one has to be strategic debt. It is incurred for strategic purposes and debt is taken on long term. You can even get along with tactical debt, which is known for procuring quick gains and meant to be paid within a short period.Inadvertent debt is taken not knowingly due to lack of skill of developers and awareness on ways technical debt is well-incurred. Another one is incremental debt, which is continuous form of inadvertent debt.

There are many people in today’s time who are struggling with debt issues and are not finding a way to get out of it. Nor they are able to manage it well so that they can live a peaceful life. For such people debt consolidation loans are doing well as they are much effective. You can go for them and can make your life easy and stress free. Check them out and learn about them well before going for them.

Neural Networks Model Audience Reactions to Movies

Deep learning software models the audience reactions to the movies

Blockbusters and tentpole movies have become a mega event not just for the fans but also for the studios. A huge amount of money is stake when movie are released but for some time now movies are failing to get desired results as per the expectations of studio executives.

Engineers at the Disney Research had developed a new deep learning software which makes effective use of the neural networks to map and access the viewers’ facial expressions to the movies. This particular software is result of collaboration between Disney Research and researchers from the Caltech and Simon Fraser University.

This new age deep learning software will arm studios with the knowledge of how movies are going to perform on box office through utilizing a newly developed algorithm called factorized variational auto encoders (FVAEs).

How it works?

This software makes use of the deep learning to translate the images of highly complex objects automatically. These objects can be anything from the human face, forests, trees to moving objects and this software essentially turns their images into sets of numerical data through a process called encoding or latent representation.

Thereby they were able to understand how human react to the movies by understanding how much they are smiling or how worries they were in a particular scene and so on. In next stage these neural networks are fed with the metadata which helps in bringing better understanding of the audience responses.

Researchers are all set to showcase their findings to the world at the upcoming event called IEE Conference ion Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition in July.

Futures prospects and application of this new software

Research team has performed extensive testing of this software to make the best use of the neural networks to unlock how human perceive movies in real life. This software was applied in more than 150 showings of nine blockbusters ranging from The Jungles Book, Big Hero 6 to Stars Wars: The Force Awakens.

In the 400 seater cinema hall researchers made use of four infrared cameras to make out the audience face reactions in the dark. The result of these testing provided highly astonishing findings with the help of some 16 million individual facial images captured by the cameras.


Lead researcher has stressed the amount of data collected by the software is too much for a person to comprehend on its own. The FVAEs effectively understood the nueral networks and brought some of the greatest finding for the researchers. It helped in understanding how audience reacted to certain scenes and how movie making can be enhanced to strike cord with audience hot points.

This software will not be just limited to study the audience reaction to the movies but it can also find application in analyzing varied things or places like forest wherein it can state how trees responds to different climatic and environmental changes. Later on this very finding can be utilized in creating animated simulation of the flora all around us with precision.

‘CopyCat’ Malware Infected 14 Million Google Android Devices

“CopyCat”, a harmful software campaign, affected millions of devices that run on the Android operating system by Google. In this defect, more than a million dollars were brought in through false and fake advertising and app installations, as stated by the researchers at the Israeli cybersecurity firm Check Point Software Technologies.

This operation peaked during April and May 2016. It infected about 14 million devices and raked in about $1.5 million in just a matter of two months. The outbreak seemed to have spread to devices through third party app stores and phishing attacks, instead of the official Google play app.

A mobile security researcher at Check Point named Daniel Padon informed Fortune that his team conveyed the operation to Google in March almost immediately after discovering it. By that time Google had controlled much of the problem.

When CopyCat infection was rampant everywhere, the malware got hold of “root” control for about 8 million devices and used that authority to supply more than 100 million fake ads and install 4.9 million apps on various devices, garnering considerable amount of revenues for cybercriminals. The malware was able to do this with the help of a few exploits to gain access to security holes in Android versions 5 and earlier and then later by taking over the "Zygote" which is a part of Android systems that handle app launches.

Check Point researchers stated that is this first malware discovered that utilises this technique. They also noted that this tactic was first used by Triada which was a money-stealing malware. Researchers have in fact traced the CopyCat operation back to a 3-year-old ad-tech start-up that was based in Guangzhou, China called MobiSummer. The infrastructure, remote services and code signatures were shared by the malware operators and the start-up, as told by the researchers, although they were not sure whether the company acted on this deliberately or unconsciously.

The CopyCat malware mainly harmed devices in Southeast Asia, countries such as India, Pakistan and Bangladesh although about 280,000 people in the United States were also impacted when it was at its peak. Researchers also observed that the adware deliberately avoided pursuing China-based users, thus deducing that the culprits might have been based there itself and functioned this way to avoid being caught by the local authorities.

Aaron Stein who is a Google spokesperson, stated that the company has been keeping an eye out for any variant of the CopyCat malware for the last few years. He also added that a security feature made official by the company in May called Google Play Protect that scrutinizes and abolishes harmful apps from devices, was now able to immunize phones against these attacks even if they are functioning on an earlier version of Android.

Stein also said that CopyCat is modified version of a larger malware family that they have been on the lookout since 2015. Every time a new variant makes an appearance, they upgrade their detection systems to safeguard their users. Play Protect defends users from the family of malware and any apps that were carrying the CopyCat malware have not been circulated via Play, Stein said. This tactic of fake advertising has become a profitable way for offenders to make some cash online, examples are the “Hummingbird” ad fraud scam which helped fraudsters make $300,000 per month and the most recent one being “Methbot” which robbed up to $5 million a day.

Your Phone Is Your Most Vulnerable Gadget. Protect It Now

Smartphones – Gold Mine of Data/Secret/Password

Often we tend to be very cautious in safeguarding our homes and cars, putting in much effort for the security of the same. However we tend to overlook the fact that the smartphones which is our constant companion and a device with sensitive details could also be tampered.

No smartphone can be unhackable and all are not so permeable. Several of the companies have been working on designing devices which would make it difficult to peer into it. Smartphones are said to be gold mine of data, secrets and passwords, all on the one side of a four digit passcode or a fingerprint scan locks which could be picked by anyone with easy utilising the right tools.

General Manager of mobile solutions at BlackBerry, Alex Thurber had commented that `if the entire United States government wants to hack your phone, they are going to get in’. Some start-up firms like Sirin Labs who had designed a phone known as Solarin, have been utilising chip-level 256-bit AED encryption – translation: intelligence agency-grade puzzlement, as a precaution against breaches. The Solarin tends to have a switch in order to trigger a `secure zone’ that kills all features with the exception of the encrypted phone calls and texting.

Real Challenge – Super-Secure Smartphones

Blackphone of Silent Circle seems to have the same feature known as Spaces which enables the user to keep their personal life isolated from their work life, detached from their surveillance. Another company – Turing Robotic Industries has been functioning with big-name safety dealers in preinstalling defensive software which would be making Android phones less penetrable.

The Boeing Black which is a hyper secure smartphone designed for the defense group is said to use virtual-desktop software which tends to keep all the data of the devices on a dissimilar machine to avoid someone getting into Black and find nothing there. Moreover the phone also tends to have a self-destruct routine which gets activated should someone attempt to crack it open.

 CEO of Turing Robotic Industries, Syl Chao stated that the real challenge is in making supersecure smartphones adequately cool for customers to have them. He further added that `people tend to care about security, but they also have a lot on their mind and don’t want to think about security.

Smartphones/Apps Updated

It is essential to keep one’s phone and apps updated since Google, Apple together with the app developers tend to release new code regularly as they seem to play futile game against exploits. Moreover one should also be aware of what your phone tends to be doing. There are some devices such as the Blackphone which can convey which apps are utilising which sensors and radios.

 Should the user be on another Android handset, apps such as DCentral I tend to do something identical but not so meticulously. Besides this, there are some simple tips of not clicking the sketchy link, of never handing your phone to a stranger and refrain from being in public hot spots. If one makes it hard for the attacker they may simply move on and your data can be saved from getting into the wrong hands.

Google Blocks Lets You Make Gorgeous Low-Poly VR Art

Google Blocks Latest Virtual Reality App

The latest virtual reality app by Google called Google Blocks allows users to make colourful 3D models in Virtual Reality or VR and has recently been available for free on the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. It is supposed to be spontaneous enough for beginners to use, but at the same time it is fully featured to help make artistic models, similar to the ones Google has gathered in a gallery that is online. Users are able to export objects and can view them online itself, or can also place them in 3D scenes both inside and outside virtual reality. Visitors are also able to spin objects around to generate animated GIFs that can be downloaded, on Google’s site.

Blocks is a recent one of the many design tools that work inside VR. It is on the same lines as Oculus’ sculpting app Medium and corresponds to Google’s popular Tilt Brush 3D painting tool. You can also use both of these together as you have the ability to export art from both Tilt Brush and Blocks. However, the art style appearance is very different. On one hand Tilt Brush gives the delusion of sculpting with paint and light whereas Blocks lets you create low-poly art in a colourful style that is used by Google in its Daydream VR interface.

Sadly for Google Daydream users, Blocks is at present restricted to only high-end headsets, which have complicated hand controls and let you move around creations. But this may not always be the case as Google is now making available all-in-one Daydream headsets that could compete with the Rift and Vive’s feature set.

Virtual Reality creators envisage a future in which users can build fantastic environments with beautiful objects in it. But in order to do that, these objects have to be created by somebody and for this a basic knowledge of 3D modelling software is needed. Google, through its design tool Blocks, seems to have found a solution to this setback.

With the help of Blocks, Google aims to give the freedom to its users to use VR and create, share and modify 3D objects promptly and without any hassle. At present, the time it takes to build a 3D object is so tiresome and it is near to impossible to achieve it.

What Google Blocks creators have done is learn about the textures and lighting and just use the most fundamental colours and shapes to see how far one can get. The user interface of Blocks depends on the motion-sensing controllers of the HTC Vive or Oculus Rift. Unfortunately, it is not available for mobile users at present.

Blocks may appear to be less proficient than Oculus’ own VR sculpting app, Medium, which is powerful, but because of its minimalism it is more user-friendly. Intricately detailed objects have low-poly aesthetics which maintains high visual consistency as well as performance.

A lower count of polygon enables the 3D objects created in Blocks to run on not only powerful VR headsets such as Vive and Rift but also on low-cost, phone-enabled assembles like Google’s Daydream View or Samsung’s Gear VR. Google Blocks is therefore a fun tool to use and like Tilt Brush a brilliant introduction to VR.