Author Archives: Catherine Świątek

Bye Bye Hackers

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Cybercrime is becoming more and more popular and dangerous. That issue definitely requires more attention and new ways of handling it. Currently, hackers feel pretty free and elusive. According to “Rzeczpospolita”, our government has noticed this problem. Minister of digitization, Anna Streżyńska, decided to appoint a new vice minister – vice minister for cyber security.

hakerzy

In my opinion, this is the highest time to take a closer look on this problem, from business perspective as well as the personal one. A lot of business loose money because of hackers and a lot of people do not feel safe in the Internet because of them. Therefore, I am glad that there will be someone responsible for fighting with cybercrime. The beginnings are always hard and probably it will take a lot of time until this fight will be effective, nevertheless, maybe the awareness that there is someone watching will make hackers a little bit less active.

What is your opinion? Do you think this a good idea, or just a waste of money?

Source: http://tvn24bis.pl/z-kraju,74/przeglad-prasy-bedzie-minister-do-walki-z-hakerami,606474.html

Businesses and Professions of the Nearest Future

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Technology is changing everything, therefore, how is going business and labor market to look like in the nearest decade? “Irish Independent” prepared 10 world professions on the basis of Expert Group on Future Skills Needs (EGFSN) report. EGFSN is a group of experts, who counsel the Irish government on the matters of labor market. They forecast the further need for data analysis and the skills that are connected with it. Moreover, they see a huge potential in so called “Sharing economy”, which is now being tested by startups like Uber or Airbnb.

Zrzut ekranu 2015-12-02 o 18.54.52

 

  1. Garbage Cleaning Astronauts

There is a lot of garbage in space and they are dangerous for communication satellites. Scientists plan to start “Pac-Man” satellite, which will be cleaning and the specially trained astronauts should be ready in 5 years.

  1. Cybercrime Investigators

Because of cybercrimes a lot of companies and private persons already lost a lot of money, therefore, cybercrimes investigators are and will be needed.

  1. Virtual Assistant

A lot of companies fight to cut the expenses as much as possible and that is why the demand for virtual assistants, who provide online administrative and technical support for customers, will increase.

  1. Drone Air Traffic Controller

DHL drones already function on the islands of North Sea and other companies like Google or Amazon are preparing for making this step as well, therefore, controllers of drone air traffic will be needed soon.

  1. Photonics Engineer

Photonics is a development of electronics, which uses photons instead of electrons. Surgical instruments, computers for high-speed communications, and measurements of pollution – all will depend on photonics very soon and here is a place for photonics engineers.

  1. Tesla Car Designer

Tesla already has produced cars in accordance with sustainable transport, the next step are trucks.

  1. Data Analyst

Data collections are already huge and they will just grow bigger. Despite the innovated tools for analysis, the human factor is irreplaceable. Thanks to analysts companies are able to understand the gathered data and know how to make money out of it.

  1. Medical Data Analyst

Portable technological devices will have a huge influence on remote monitoring of patient’s health. Thanks to that health service will have more data, which will enable faster and more effective diagnose and treatment process.

  1. Calculation Pathologist

According to forecast until 2030 the amount of people with cancer will increase to 21,7 million, and the number of deaths to 13 million. The new proposal of fighting with this disease is so called “Calculation Pathology” (C-Path), which will analyze and assess the images connected with cancer; however, the human factor will be vital.

  1. “Sharing services” sector entrepreneurs 

Businesses like Uber, Airbnb, Nimber or TaskRabbit will be changing the private sector of economy. Thanks to focusing on small services like cleaning, assembly or home repairs people will be able to make money way faster.

Do you agree with EGFSN? Or maybe, in your opinion, there will be more prominent business to invest in and professions that will be more needed then these 10?

Source: http://tvn24bis.pl/ze-swiata,75/a-moze-kosmiczny-smieciarz-10-zawodow-przyszlosci,570975.html

Let’s be a part of a technological breakthrough

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Recently, Google has shared TensorFlow platform on Open Source basis, which will enable the artificial intelligence to enter new fields. Google highlights that TensnorFlow is a better version of a previous platform – DistBelief, which was used in image and speech recognition systems, real-time translation and faster content search in the Internet. If the older platform brought such things to life, I am really exited what the better version will do.

According to the plan, TenserFlow will make the machine learning and artificial intelligence development quicker. Thanks to the Open Source, absolutely everyone can use the library and develop it on Apache 2.0 license. Google did not decide for payable share but expects that people, who use the library, will share their insights in return. That makes the chances for artificial intelligence applications in every-day life solutions much bigger. Adam Jesionkieiwcz, the CEO of Infinity, says that wide availability of TensorFlow creates new technological possibilities and it shows the current importance of AI and its future in our lives. A lot of new products can be invented thanks to that.

Many people associate artificial intelligence with science fiction movies and are not aware that it is present in our lives. However, this is just the beginning, the biggest changes are yet to come. According to A. Jesionkiewicz we cannot even imagine what will happen. He compares our predictions with the conversation of two monkeys, where one monkey says that one day they will leave trees, live on the ground, use computers, eat with cutlery, wear clothes, fly by plane etc. and the other monkey is terrified. Some day we will become these monkeys.

What about you? Are you exited about the technological breakthrough? Are you going to use the Open Source for TenserFlow and be a part of new product invention? 🙂

More information at: http://tensorflow.org

Sources:

http://www.wirtualnemedia.pl/artykul/google-udostepnil-na-zasadach-open-source-platforme-tensorflow-sztuczna-inteligencja-wejdzie-do-nowych-dziedzin

http://pclab.pl/news66942.html

 

 

Gamescore – a new indicator of our creditworthiness?

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Not in Poland; but in China – yes. China figured out a new system of determining people’s creditworthiness, which is a condition to get any kind of loan. They took gamefication to a whole new level. What is more, this is a new idea how to get more data about the people and how to control their private lives.

The system was shown this year and in 5 years it will be compulsory in all China. People will be getting credit points in scale 350-950. There will also be a tracking application, which will be coupled with the ID of every citizen. How you can gain or loose points? With almost every click you make. You gain points if you have online friends, who are politically correct (of course not on facebook etc, but on Chinese substitutes of Western social media), if you have a hobby which is considered to be a “positive hobby” (there are two categories of hobbies – positive and negative ones), if you buy appropriate products – e.g. healthy food, etc.

Capture

In order to make all this work, government prepared the “carrot” – bonuses for taking good care of the gamescore. The more points you get the bigger loan you can take, e.g. for 650 points you can borrow a car without paying the deposit, for 700 points you can get the allowance for a trip to Singapore and for 750 points guarantees obtaining a Schengen visa. Moreover, companies are going to adjust their services to this system and e.g. if you have the appropiate amount of points, you will have a higher passanger status at airlines and get additional conveniences for free.

All of that sounds terryfing, however, we give a lot of pieces of information about ourselves as well. There is just no pointing system, but the data is there. Do you think it will be ever possible to do something similar in Europe? For a smaller scale?

source: http://www.computerworld.com/article/2990203/security/aclu-orwellian-citizen-score-chinas-credit-score-system-is-a-warning-for-americans.html

The dangerous power of Internet of Things

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The Internet of things should be understood as a kind of ecosystem, in which devices communicate with each other using the network, e.g. a home network or the Internet. This type of solution can be used for instance in intelligent houses, in kitchen appliances, at airports or in shops. IoT can be used for remote control of home heating, it enables fridge to order food and it makes your irrigation water your lawn automatically, if in the weather forecast for the next few days there is no rain.

At first glance it seems to be to a huge benefit for consumers, which is confirmed by the increasing popularity of this technology. The IAB report published last month shows (available for download http://iab.org.pl/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Raport-Internet-Rzeczy-w-Polsce.pdf) that 40% of the respondents declared they owned devices using IoT and 50% said they desired to have such devices in the future.

However, I would like to point out that what was designed to be a convenience for all of us, can become our curse. Taking into account advances in technology, IoT will be using more and more sensors, cameras and data, which, together with Big Data, will allow better and more precise customer profiling as well as algorithm creation. Such actions are already taking place e.g. a few years ago American retail chain called “Target” basing on the purchases of a teenager, concluded that she was pregnant. Therefore, they sent her a package of materials related to motherhood. The package was picked up by her father and that is how he found out he was going be a grandfather (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2102859/How-Target-knows-shoppers-pregnant–figured-teen-father-did.html).

That is why I encourage reflecting and being conscious while agreeing to the terms and conditions of services we want to use, because they can take over the control of our lives.