Author Archives: Podworski Kamil

Mercury powered space vehicles to speed up space exploration

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An idea from the Cold War times – mercury as a spacecraft fuel, used by startup from Silicone Valley.

Source: Spacenews.com

Recently, Apollo Fusion, a startup led by Mike Cassidy (ex VP of Google) was purchased by Astra for $50 million. The company is specialised in electric propulsion systems. Currently, gases such as xenon or Krypton are used to power spacecrafts, but according to Apollo Fusion, mercury gives new opportunities.

Mercury is a much heavier alternative from used gases, which gives the possibility of obtaining a larger power from such fuel, based on the research, it could be up to 3 times more powerful than the strongest engine known to us today system, powered by xenon.

Mercury would allow you to give a much larger and heavier cosmic vehicles, which would accelerate the investigation of space.

Sources:
https://apollofusion.com
https://spacenews.com/astra-to-acquire-spacecraft-propulsion-company-apollo-fusion/
https://www.popularmechanics.com/space/rockets/a25242578/apollo-fusion-mercury/
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-11-19/this-space-startup-could-lace-the-atmosphere-with-toxic-mercury

Advertising in VR – welcome to new channel of digital marketing

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Social Media mogul, Facebook, announced that it will start advertising in a virtual reality environment using the Oculus platform. The first attempts will be carried out on a game called Blaston, which is a single player shooter.

Source: oculus.com

The game is not a highly popular one, but Facebook wants to run the tests on less used apps. “For now, this is a test with a few apps – once we see how this test goes and incorporate feedback from developers and incorporate, we’ll provide more details on when ads may become more broadly available across the oculus platform and in the oculus mobile app “

The first doubts are directed towards the data privacy and whether the headset from Oculus will not use camera or user movements for advertisement targeting purposes. Facebook denied accusations and ensured that all activities will be ethical and the data will come from other sources. As it is mentioned on oculus blog, “ads are most effective when they’re high-quality and relevant—because of that, Oculus ads will follow Facebook’s advertising principles, the first of which is “build for people first””

Sources:

https://www.oculus.com/blog/testing-in-headset-vr-ads/

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/16/facebook-to-begin-testing-ads-inside-oculus-virtual-reality-headsets.html

China launches first crewed space mission in 11 years

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For the first time in 11 years, on June 17, 2021, China launched a space mission with a crew. The mission will last 90 days, which makes it the longest crewed space mission in China’s space exploration history.

Source: CNN

Three astronauts are participating in Shenzhou 12 mission – Commander No Haisheng, Liu Boming and Tang Hongbo, the goal of the mission is to work on Chinese space station, “Preparing a new home in space for use”.

Astronauts docked at Tianhe, the main section of the Tianongong station, which was launched on April 29. In May, it was equipped with fuel, food and everything else needed for a crewed mission.

China invests billions in development of space program, this year their space rover landed on Mars, and 11 space missions have already been planned for next year.

Source:
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-57504052
https://techcrunch.com/2021/06/17/china-launches-3-Astronauts-to-its-new-space-station-core-module/
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/06/16/china/china-manned-mission-space-launch-intl-hnk-cn/index.html

PGNiG implementation of AI effects on gas production

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PGNiG is a Polish state-owned company specialised in extracting gas and kerosene operating since 1976. This week, the company has launched a AI implementation project called Smart Field.

Source: media.wplm.pl

The aim of the project is to maximize resource extraction, its operation will “slow down deplet of its recoverable gas reserves by 7.3 Billion Cubic Meters over the next 12 months.”

In 2009, the PGNiG launched the Digital Deposit Platform, which connected work related to hydrocarbon extraction into and single deposit model, since then the company effectively introduces AI and tech innovations in analytics and automation of company processes. Smart Field is considered as a direct effect of the platform that will help the company develop further. “This is a technological leap that opens up new Opportunities for us to build our position on global markets” – Robert Perkowski, PGNiG’s Operations VP


What’s more, the company plans to implement AI-based solutions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by improving the effectiveness of working on the extractions. “Natural gas can play a key role in the process of rapid deconison of the national economy. We want the fuel we supply to have the lowest possible carbon footprint in the entire value chain, “Pawel Majewski, PGNiG’s Board President.

Sources:

https://en.pgnig.pl/news/-/news-list/id/pgnig-to-harness-artificial-intelligence-to-make-production-more-efficient-cheaper-and-greener/newsGroupId/1910852

https://aibusiness.com/document.asp?doc_id=770253&

https://www.thefirstnews.com/article/pgnig-to-increase-domestic-gas-deposits-thanks-to-ai-project-22574

The technological race for autonomous vehicles

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Alphabet, Google parent company, initially was the only investor of Waymo, but recently it opened to investments and quickly gathered over $2 billion. In the latest round, the company gathered over $2.5 billion, which in total gave $5 billion Capital.

Source: Waymo.com


Waymo has been operating for 12 years, the company specialises in autonomous vehicles. It is one of the oldest and best co-financed companies in this industry, and their great advantage is full access to unlimited Google resources.


Company’s cars are tested on the roads of 25 cities, Waymo One, which is a service that allows a ride to a stand-alone car, traveled thousands of kilometres, what is more company signed partnerships with numerous transport companies.


Recently, Waymo entered cooperation with Daimler – the owner of Mercedes-Benz, to work on autonomous trucks. After that, many other automakers have started a similar cooperation with Waymo.

Despite numerous successes and continuous development, the company also faced many problems that leaked to the public. This year, from the company, the vast majority of CxO level employees left, which was probably associated with videos that appeared soon after. The movies showed as autonomous vehicles get out from control during road tests. In recent years, numerous accidents were caused by autonomous vehicles and media was vocal about every case.

The autonomous vehicle market is dynamically developing and interest is increasing among tech giants such as Microsoft or Amazon. The first one invested $2 billion in Lyft, and the second one bought a company called Zoox. Companies from the automotive market are also increasingly interested in this technology, Daimler took over many companies specialised in autonomous tech, Ford and Volkswagen invested gigantic capital in Argo Ai, Toyota started working on the first autonomous car, and Bridgestone bought the majority of Kodiak Robotics, all these activities look like a technological race.

Despite this, the old player on the market, Waymo claims that “They love a challenge.”

Sources:

https://waymo.com

https://aibusiness.com/document.asp?doc_id=770295&

SpaceX launches 60 Starlink broadband satellites into orbit

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source: Fox news

SpaceX launched 60 Starlink satellites to orbit from Cape Canaveral, Florida, Wednesday night time.

The Falcon 9 rocket launched from the Area Launch at 12 a.m. ET and minutes later the rocket’s first stage landed on a drone ship named “Simply Learn the Directions” off the coast of Florida, Area.com reported.

The satellites deployed round 180 miles above the Earth, based on Spaceflightnow.com, which reported SpaceX has now launched greater than 1,500 satellites into orbit, the launch marked the corporate’s Twenty fifth batch of broadband satellites blasted into house.

Final week, SpaceX launched 4 astronauts from Cape Canaveral headed for the Worldwide Area Station. It was the corporate’s third flight crew in lower than a year.

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/science/spacex-launches-25th-batch-of-starlink-broadband-satellites-into-orbit-from-cape-canaveral-wednesday-night

AI Breaking into the Cannabis-Tech Industry

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source: https://hackernoon.com/how-is-ai-disrupting-the-cannabis-tech-industry-bxv35di?supply=rss

Up until now, 36 states and 4 territories have legalised marijuana for medical usages throughout the US. The CBD industry has been growing at a fast pace with gross sales growing from USD 0.5 billion in 2018 to a predicted USD 1.9 billion by 2022. That would be a large 280% growth in gross sales.

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Supply: Statista

With USD 2.8 billion in valuation in 2020, the CBD market is expected to develop at a compound annual progress price (CAGR) of 21.2% from 2021 to 2028. The never stopping legalisation of medical CBD and the growing consciousness relating to it, is opening up alternatives for the industry. Additionally, main innovators within the scientific, biotech, and pharmaceutical sectors are on the lookout for methods to be a part of early market growth.

The Need of AI

AI improved many industries, and CBD isn’t any different from them. From monitoring of planting and harvesting plants, categorising strains and calculating the supply chains and growing advertising, AI could improve many aspects of the cannabinol business.

Implementation

During last years, many producers have introduced AI and machine-learning solutions for their internal processes, mostly focusing on decision making of choosing the right seeds and monitoring environmental situations for optimal progress of the crops. With extra developments in know-how, we’d quickly see robots doing human work and extra importantly with extra accuracy. AI-driven farm bots aren’t a science fiction imaginary thought anymore – they’re an actual factor right this moment.

Robots, at the moment moment, can map out the optimal spacing wanted for correct plant progress, determine and take away the low-quality seeds, and likewise measure values of farms for optimising yield. AI-enabled drones with cameras can calculate the expansion price of the crops by taking and analysing real-time photos. Even harvesting may be automated.

Production and packaging can be also automated, this leads to omitting human-related mistakes, saves on money, time and makes the whole business run more smoothly.

Conclusion

The demand for CBD products are growing through the years as a consequence of their potential well being advantages. Whereas CBD can be utilised for the treatment of Multiple Sclerosis, cannabinol medications are appearing as a potential cure for PTSD. Assembly these calls for is essential for good enterprise and it’s clear that synthetic intelligence helps corporations attaining the identical.

source: https://hackernoon.com/how-is-ai-disrupting-the-cannabis-tech-industry-bxv35di?supply=rss

Facebook Strategy to Improving the News Feed Ranking

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source: https://www.improvemysearchranking.com/facebook-improving-news-feed-ranking/

Recent news from Facebook spilled some information about the social media giant plan to improve their news feed and give users more relevant, more engaging and overall more personalised content.

During upcoming months, users will be asked to fill surveys about content. This data will be used by Facebook to later introduce new changes to the platform.

The end result will be based on four different signals driven by user feedback.

Those four signals are:

1. Is this post inspirational?

The feeling of inspiration is heavily positive, uplifting and motivating. This high dose of positivity is like digital vitamin D for us, makes our mood much better. Especially now, during pandemic, it’s a high priority to give users inspiration.

One part of the feedback survey will ask people if they found posts inspirational. Based on that feedback, Facebook will recognize posts as inspirational, and that signal will be incorporated and considered for future news feed rankings. 

2. Is this post interesting?

The second signal was defined in order to make sure that content shown by facebook reaches the right audience. After all, people engage with content that they are genuinely interested in.

Facebook is going to ask people if they are interested in certain topics and if they want to find more media on their feed about those topics.

Based on that information, content will be to ranked and prioritised in users’ news feeds.

Most interesting posts will be shown closer to the top of news feed, and the ones with less interest-rate, will be moved down. What’s more, Facebook will organically promote posts in topics that users find interesting.

3. Do you want to see less of these posts?

Facebook plan doesn’t consist of only bringing up the most interesting topics, but also lowering those less interesting.

If people will signal that certain topic isn’t interesting for them, similar posts won’t be shown to them.

4. Do you want to hide this post?

Finally, if someone is not only, not interested in certain topic, but doesn’t want to see it at all, Facebook is making it even easier for them. This was, the social media giant will make our social media feed even more personal.

How Facebook is Improving it's News Feed
source: https://interreviewed.com/how-facebook-is-improving-its-news-feed-ranking/

This will also serve as a ranking signal to improve the news feed experience.

Here is what Facebook said about this feedback process:

“While a post’s engagement — or how often people like it, comment on it, or share it — can be a helpful indicator that it’s interesting to people, this survey-driven approach, which largely occurs outside the immediate reaction to a post, gives a more complete picture of the types of posts people find most valuable and what kind of content detracts from their News Feed experience.”

This news feed rankings will be adjusted over the next few months, based on the feedback Facebook receives from users.

source: https://interreviewed.com/how-facebook-is-improving-its-news-feed-ranking/

Apple fights for its customers privacy

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Recently Apple has started a real war with developers violating their privacy policy, starting with facebook and their research app and going to every app that records screen to process how users interact with it. Either this feature will be deleted or the developers will face being removed from App Store.

An apple spokesperson asked about that situation told TechCrunch: “Protecting user privacy is paramount in the Apple ecosystem. Our App Store Review Guidelines require that apps request explicit user consent and provide a clear visual indication when recording, logging, or otherwise making a record of user activity.”

“We have notified the developers that are in violation of these strict privacy terms and guidelines, and will take immediate action if necessary,”

 

Many apps, including ones like Hotels.com, Expedia or Hollister used third party software to record every tap of users and didn’t ask for permission to do that. Software like Glassbox is a cross-platform analytics tool which allows companies to record users activity and analyse every single move. Even though Apple strictly forbids gathering any data without users knowledge, many developers use software like Glassbox despite unconsciousness of users.

 

Is Apple going to continue removing apps like Facebooks “research” from the App Store? Is the company going to strictly execute their policy and rules on developers? We will see soon.

 

 

Sources:
techcrunch.com
theverge.com

For three years Facebook has been craftily collecting data under radar

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If you don’t feel well with Facebook analysing your every move in web, this might be very disturbing for you.

Since 2016, Facebook has been running research program in which they offered users in ages from 13 up to 35 small, monthly payments for using their software. The whole idea was that the user gave full access to their phone data, which then facebook could gather, analyse and use. The app, literally called “Research” used for this purpose, was recently removed from the App Store by apple due to the fact that it violated their policy by getting root access to network traffic.

Tim Cook has repeatedly criticised  Facebook for their data collection practices and breaking AppStore rules might be worsening his opinion.

The system was administered by beta testing systems such as Applause, BetaBound and uTest in order to hide any connections to Facebook, the whole project was given a fitting name – “Atlas”, rather highlighting that Zuckerberg and crew tried to map trends among users worldwide.

Will Strafach, Guardian Mobile Firewall’s security expert, was asked to do some research on the “Research”, after all he reported “If Facebook makes full use of the level of access they are given by asking users to install the Certificate, they will have the ability to continuously collect the following types of data: private messages in social media apps, chats from in instant messaging apps – including photos/videos sent to others, emails, web searches, web browsing activity, and even ongoing location information by tapping into the feeds of any location tracking apps you may have installed.” Basically, if you install the app and give it permission to use your data, it will collect anything that goes out or in your phone.

 

This shows how far the tech giant is willing to go for data collection, the direction in which it’s going might even scare some of us, even so big and trusted companies like facebook violate policies and go beyond ethics.

 

 

 

 

Sources:
techcrunch.com
betabound.com