Power: 1250 HP
Torque: 850 Nm
Weight: 1250 kg
Acceleration: 0-100 km/h in 1,9 s
Top speed: 432km/h
Price: $1,7 million

Grabs attention, doesn’t it? That’s exactly what’s supposed to do. This, as Czinger website states, “Dominating performance” puts 21C among the world’s greatest hypercars. But it’s so much more than that.

21C stands for the 21st century. It represents a whole new approach to car design and manufacturing process. The new approach could be defined with 4 words: artificial intelligence and additive manufacturing.

The design process is a cooperation between humans and ai. The designers set certain parameters for a part, such as mounting point, size, strength, etc. and the ai using its database of materials creates the most efficient structure. “Meaning you reduce the mass to the max, still meeting a performance set of requirements” explains Kevin Czinger, founder and CEO. However, the optimization of the design isn’t limited to a single part. Using ai enables us to get a more holistic approach to designing the car, rather than dividing the process into teams.

The parts designed that way cannot be manufactured by the machines being currently used in car production. So, let’s now focus on additive manufacturing. You’ve probably heard about it, as it’s also known as 3D printing. It allows those weirdly shaped parts to be made. It’s not that new of technology, however, the breakthrough here is the speed. The parts can be manufactured at the same rate as they would be if they had used the aluminum casting process, which means price parity. Another upside to additive manufacturing in comparison to subtractive manufacturing is material saving, as the 3D printers only use the material they need, rather than cutting a small part out of a bigger chunk of material.

The assembly process is also improved. It is done by an automated unit that is a set of robotic arms that work in complete harmony and take up just a 15m by 15m square. Not only does it save a lot of space when compared to a full assembly line, but it can be easily reprogrammed to assemble a different car. So can the 3D printers. Because of that, those machines don’t become obsolete once a car stops being manufactured.

I believe that this technology will have a significant impact on the market. I don’t think all cars will be produced that way, but as of right now there is no automation solution for small-to-medium car production. The manufacturing patented by Divergent 3D may just bridge that gap. I’m really hopeful, as many good projects cannot make it as the cost of setting up the production process are too high. I never expected to be more excited by the assembly process of a hypercar rather than the car itself, but here I am. 

https://www.divergent3d.com/

https://www.czinger.com/

https://www.topgear.com/car-news/geneva-motor-show-2020/czinger-21c-1233bhp-3d-printed-hypercar

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdG4gUTowXc&ab_channel=DonutMedia

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Everyone should understand how hierarchy in any IT company works. A person should move gradually up the ladder from staff to CEO.

A lot of people think that leadership is boring and not interesting. But this is a huge mistake. Being a head requires intelligence and effort as well as more responsibilities.

There are jobs and positions. And they are not the same. A “job” is about some specific skills and knowledge while a “position” is mostly about your management skills. So we can have a look at the IT area from the hierarchal point of view. We will find out which position to strive for and what responsibility to take.

These are the basic positions: a worker (staff, employees), a manager, an executive, a business owner (investor). Getting back to IT we have the following options:

IT consultancy: we begin as an intern consultant and move up to IT consultancy manager – in this position, your job is to evaluate the systems and do the research that no one else entirely understands. Salary: $78,284

Cloud computing: we begin as workers and move up to Cloud architect – you’ve heard of cloud computing of course. Although that storage space can’t be touched literally, it still needs to be organized and given an architecture. Salary: $128,418

Computer forensic investigator: we begin as workers and move up to Computer forensic investigator– search for, identify and evaluate information from computer systems, often for trial evidence. Salary: $62,753

Health information technology: we begin as workers and move up to Health IT specialist – mix computer knowledge with record-keeping skills. Salary: $63,932

Mobile app development: we begin as workers and move up to Mobile application developer – using basic coding languages, developers will create programs for future iOS and Android devices. Salary: $73,257

Web developing: we begin as workers and move up tp Web design project manager -web developer – they create web pages, web applications and web content, but their skill set requires them to have excellent understanding of what makes a good operating system, what the average surfer finds visually stimulating and how to optimize sites for mobile tech, among numerous other skills. They also need proficiency in Web languages, like HTML and Javascript. Salary: $59,343

Data Modeler: we begin as workers and move up to Data Modeler – create data designs and define relationships between data fields, according to TBS (Tokyo Broadcasting System). Salary: $80,967

So I hope after reading this post you know more not only about hierarchy in just a company, but IT management hierarchy as well. And it shows what jobs you can do in the IT area.

Reading Time: < 1 minuteHave you ever had a song stuck in your head and no matter what you can’t recall it’s title? Well now you can just hum, sing or whistle to your phone and Google’s newest feature will identify it for you.  

The technology to identify songs through means other than lyrics alone already dates a decade, being present in 2009 in the app SoundHound, however it operated by matching the tonne to a database of already identified songs through humming, whistling and singing. Google launched it’s music identifying AI in 2017 with the Pixel 2 smartphone, and expanded it the following year to the SoundSearch feature in the Google app. This new feature takes it a step further “because now we can recognize songs without the lyrics or original song. All we need is a hum,” according to The Keyword. 

The technology works by turning the melody of the 10-15 second clip of humming into a numbers-based sequence. It is then used “to identify songs based on a variety of sources, including humans singing, whistling or humming, as well as studio recordings.” The algorithms also strip all unwanted details like background noise. Then it produces a list of most likely results based on the tune. 

The new feature is currently only available on mobile devices in the Google app, Google Search widget and Google Assistant. It works on Android in 20 different languages and in English only on IOS. How accurate the technology is and whether people will use it only time will tell. 

https://blog.google/products/search/hum-to-search 

https://www.businessinsider.com/google-hum-to-search-how-to-identify-song-without-lyrics-2020-10?IR=T 

https://www.cnet.com/how-to/google-has-a-new-humming-feature-for-your-phone-heres-how-it-works/

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Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams and others are a standard, when it comes to having a meeting online. They have been regularly used by companies around the world in the past few years. But none of then expected how the year 2020 is going to turn the cards into their favor.

When the COVID-19 virus has appeared in China, no one would predict the spread and impact it would have on all of us around the world. But we have all quickly realized that it isn’t a regular flu and in the wink of an eye governments around the world started to impose restrictions affecting our daily lives. With that being said, closed businesses and schools had to switch to an online form of meetings and classes. As reported by yourmoney.com, this has caused a huge growth of Zoom users (by whooping 2,000%.)

We all surely know the feeling of having a class online – it’s definitely different than being at school and nowadays, we have to do it for several hours a day. Very often during those meetings we get confused, excited or express other feelings we would like to share with the other participants, but those platforms don’t really help us communicate. So is there room for improvement?

Headroom, a brand new startup is working on a platform that will change everything by bringing A.I. on board. No more struggling to get attention or having troubles with bad connection. Headroom will be able to handle all the tasks you need – like raising your hand and overall attention, note-taking and even making a transcription of the whole meeting and a smart automatically-generated summaries. This would mean that every participant would only have to focus on the key thing – communication with others.

As the market has grown during the past few months, there is surely a room for improvement and I can’t wait to see Headroom’s product, so can’t others. Techcrunch.com has reported that Headroom has managed to raise $5m dollars from several investors, including Gradient Ventures (Google’s AI venture fund).

You can learn more about Headroom on https://www.goheadroom.com.

Reading Time: 2 minutesGrace Choi the CEO and co-funder of Mink had first shown her innovative product back in 2014 at the TechCrunch Disrupt New York technology conference. The company and herself have been working ever since to create a fully workable 3D make-up printer.

These are the claims of the brand regarding this product:

Ultra Portable – 2.2 lbs and 8” x 6” x 4”. Travel and store with ease.

Speed + RangePrints – 16.7 million colors at 15 seconds per sheet. Connects via WiFi with the Mink App (iOS and Android).

Safety- Produced and manufactured in accordance with FDA rules and guidelines for cosmetics. Certifications: FDA, c

GMP, UL, UL-C, CE and FCC Part 15, Class B.

All you have to do is download the Mink app, choose a picture you like, it could be a make-up look you like, a color scheme or whatever you like. Next connect wirelessly to the printer and import the image into the app. Insert a Mink make-up sheet into the tray and press sent to print. The product is immediately ready to apply.

Although 3D printing your make-up might seem like one tech addition too many, the entire process is actually extremely simple.

But its it really a necessity?

I think you don’t really need to have access to 16.7 million colors to be honest. Most women or men who use make up have their favorite color scheme, a favorite lipstick or even favorite consistency of a product. When one thing can do it all, then it is not really concentrating on any genre in particular.The actual performance of the eye-shadows is really poor. They lack pigmentation and are hard to blend. If it worked as well as they claim is does, the whole beauty industry would have already gone down and/or bankrupt. Nonetheless it is a revolutionary product and if they refine the concept a little more I think it would actually be a hit.

If you want to try it for yourself then the price of Mink is $295. As of now, only shipments within the U.S. will be made and delivered during the fall of 2020.

https://www.minkbeauty.com

https://www.businessinsider.com/grace-choi-mink-2014-9?IR=T

https://www.elle.com/uk/beauty/make-up/a28096868/mink-3d-printed-makeup/

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At the beginning of the epicenter of the coronavirus, no one was thinking about using technology to monitor for coronavirus in their workplace. Few months after being still in the same situation, “remote” working stopped being so fun, companies have to finally adapt.

The challenge begins now. Firstly how to screen patients for COVID-19 even before they entered the hospital? Or how to detect if the employee has some first symptoms of fever? Manually checking everybody’s temperature doesn’t sound like the best solution, you may say ist illogical.

Megvii company with its high-quality thermal scanners makes it possible to take the temperature of employees as they approach the front entrance, without contact with anyone checking their temperature manually. That is how workers may flow more smoothly into the building, so the system could alert staff automatically if someone is infected, in order to protect the others.

How does it work? Well, using dual light fusion technology, MEGVII has combined AI face detection with IR thermal images to accurately locate people’s forehead area for temperature measurements. Intelligently blocks non-facial high-temperature sources that would mistakenly trigger the signal alarm.

Megvii is one of the best companies offering systems to help employees confront the new challenges of COVID-19. Because more and more businesses plan to reopen,  technology firms have an array of monitoring systems to try to keep the coronavirus out of office buildings, medical facilities, and industrial plants.

That sounds like this sector might be a multibillion-dollar business in the coming year. According to investmentu.com Megvii raised $750 million in private funding in May 2019. It values the company at $4 billion, which means that Megvii is a technology unicorn.

Some companies like Amazon go even farer than using thermal scanners, by using the app called  “distance assistant” to keep people spaced out in its warehouses. Probably until there is a vaccine, the efficient monitoring and fighting the virus will be the key to whether businesses may be open.

Links:

https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/employee-relations/pages/should-you-invest-in-a-thermal-scanner.aspx

https://en.megvii.com/

http://www.fotric.com/en

https://www.ft.com/content/60ccc53e-c7c1-11e9-a1f4-3669401ba76f

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Dott, Bolt, Lime, and other companies are kindly offering consumers short-distance rides on shared electrical scooters. It is almost impossible to imagine a modern city without those services but, as a rule, they can not be distinguished in terms of the brand. 

Let’s move to a detailed review of those scooters. All of them are free to use all over the city (there is a map inside the app allowing you to find the nearest scooter). When you approach one you can scan a Qr-code with your phone camera and start a ride. Some services have made it possible to turn on the “ring” function (that is the way a scooter informs you about its location)  Moreover, there is a possibility to book a scooter in advance (the company will charge you for it). All of the scooters have a battery that allows you to ride up to 30 km distance long. The maximum speed is 25 km/hour. Acceleration is almost the same among the services. The company will charge you for your ride when you end it (0.5 zl per minute). All the transactions are conducted with Apple Pay/Google Pay or you may pay by card, which should be added in advance. And of course, all scooters are “green” what makes them ideal personal vehicles. 

Similar tariffs, similar designs, and similar apps are continuously assuring us that there is a certain pattern of how this business should be conducted, what rules should be followed, and what features should be introduced. The discussion that is coming of that should sound “What are the pros and cons of offering homogeneous services or products?” 

The market is fully controlled by several competitors so the competition is limited, existing products are improving, however, no new developments are being introduced. On the one hand, this creates a situation where customers have the access to a simplified market where they do not have to compare services and make analytics, what is good. Companies can make higher profits since the price is under their control. And there is still some competition (in terms of design, some special features inside the app, and special offers). On the other hand, such an oligopoly makes it almost impossible for new players to enter the market and introduce their innovative products to create healthy competition. What is more, people are no more supposed to opt for the best scooter. They are supposed to opt for the nearest scooter instead, cause there is absolutely no difference in them. 

This blog is not only about trendy scooters or about oligopolies in today’s world it more about the wrong path we are choosing right now. Smartphones, cars, tablets, etc. are becoming (or have already become?) homogeneous. The vast majority of the companies are following the trend, only some are trying to make these trends. 

Links:

https://bolt.eu/

https://www.li.me/second-street/lime-europe-new-cities-new-records-travel-app

https://ridedott.com/

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/o/oligopoly.asp

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Last night a new generation of iPhones was presented to the world, the iPhone 12, and its versions. This presentation was for the first time in the company’s history. Due to quarantine, Apple did not manage to prepare new devices for the annual presentation of the Apple Event at the Steve Jobs Theater. In this blog, I will show the new features and pricing of the device.

First, it is worth starting with the new (old) design of the iPhone 12. The new phone will have a new design, although the same style was used in the early models of the iPhone 5, which were quite successful in the market. The new models will use Ceramic Shield, which Apple claims are the toughest glass available on the market. The new case will be made of surgical stainless steel. A new color has also become available – Pacific blue.
The new iPhone 12 will have a 6.1-inch Super Retina XDR screen with a resolution of 2532 x 1170 pixels and a pixel density of 460 pixels per inch. The older model Athos 12 Pro Max will have a 6.7-inch screen with a resolution of 2778 x 1284 pixels.

During the presentation, Apple spent a lot of time on their new cameras. The iPhone 12 pro max will have four cameras, but one camera is a lidar. LiDAR (or ‘Light Detection and Ranging’) works similarly to radar, only it uses lasers to judge distances and depth. This is big news for augmented reality (AR) and, to a lesser extent, photography too. All three cameras have a 12-megapixel resolution. The wide-angle camera has an aperture of f / 2.4 at a viewing angle of 120 degrees. The conventional camera received a seven-element lens and an F / 1.6 aperture. The iPhone 12 Pro telephoto lens has an F / 2.0 aperture lens, while the iPhone 12 Pro Max has an F / 2.2 aperture. Simultaneously, the iPhone 12 Pro’s optical zoom is four times (with two times intermediate mode), and on the iPhone 12 Pro Max – five times (with a medium mode of 2.5x). The digital zoom reaches 10x and 12x, respectively.
Then, there was presented a fascinating thing called the iPhone 12 mini. The device will use all the same technologies as the iPhone 12, but it will be smaller with 5.4 inches screen.
The new iPhone will support a 5G connection as well. 5G mmWave technology delivers the fastest data rates, but operators need to install more cell towers to experience the benefits. It has been stated that the iPhone 12 can provide gigabit download speeds on their network.
And the most exciting part is the Prices. Prices for new devices in America start at $ 799 for the standard 12 models, $ 699 for the iPhone 12. The iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max start at $ 999 / $ 1099.
Overall, it was a good presentation with good devices shown; however, the presentation didn’t show anything extremely new.

Links: https://www.apple.com/iphone-12-pro/

https://www.apple.com/iphone-12/

https://www.apple.com/apple-events/october-2020/

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It’s fascinating to see the speed of progress in AI while improving our lives significantly.  There have been some major breakthroughs in the healthcare sector, travel sector, etc. But what is most noticeable is the increase of usage of AI for surveillance.

Certainly, there are benefits from using AI for surveillance, like an ambulance to be able to locate someone in case of an emergency or even retrace your steps (say you got food poisoning).It also could be used to track or keep an eye on a certain individual who’s been on a short leash with the law. The list could go on and on. But the main concern is how it is going to be used by certain governments and private groups.

Within a year NtechLab (a facial recognition company) is planning on deploying a fully operational surveillance AI “aggression detection”.  The purpose of this AI is detecting whether an individual leans towards committing a crime or not.

While this product could be beneficial in some way or the other, the main concern lies on where and how it is going to be used. Recently, the Russian Direct Investment Fund and a mysterious Middle East partner injected an additional 15 million dollars into this program. These parties being involved is highly troublesome considering the actions taken by them in the past couple years and their stand on democracy. Multiple case studies had been made on similar products, and the results were worrisome.

I would like to say we should be worried, but it is too late. I guess all we can do now is hope that certain regulatory actions well be implemented while moving into the future.

Link: https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2020/09/22/this-russian-facial-recognition-startup-plans-to-take-its-aggression-detection-tech-global-with-15-million-backing-from-sovereign-wealth-funds/#3b9684914b9e

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As a resident of Belarus I would like to cover a topic connected with usage of modern technologies on protests against illegitimate president. Nothing new people are adapting due to new technologies easily, but for a tall governance structure it is much harder, consequently there is a large gap between technologies. These technologies are:

The pivotal tool is telegram channels on telegram. To fully understand the scale of its usage, I have to mention that at one moment the main channel NEXTA was the biggest channel in the world among news channels having more than 2 million subscribers. This channels help people to coordinate in the city. Since telegram isn’t under restriction and can’t be blocked in Belarus governance is in a losing situation. The only thing they can do is blocking the internet, what causes enormous loses for them and businesses.

Cyber attacks on governance. Belarusian situation has created a lot of talented programmers and IT specialists because of lack of jobs there. Thus, hackers organize attacks on governance webpages and banking systems. Also they are working on uncovering of names of military structures participating in killing and torturing of people.

Governance webpage

Recognition of faces. “You have no face”  is facial recognition algorithm for doxing riot police which was developed by Belarusian specialists. Developer Andrey Maximov uploaded a video illustrating the work of a computer program that “unmasks” Belarusian law enforcement officers. The algorithm is capable of recognizing the face of a person involved in suppressing protests, even if it’s hidden by a mask, cap, or balaclava.The algorithm’s interface: it highlights the riot police officer’s face and runs it through a database of photographs of law enforcement officers. However, it doest work as good as possible making a lot of mistakes, but also it is useful technology.

illustration*

To sum up, I would like to say, that all this technologies help people to pressure on the governance without losses of people lives. Moreover, protests in Belarus are estimated as peaceful, therefore this technologies are necessary to help them remain the same.