*Interesting Reads – 2018-12-06* *Contents* *Articles* - What younger people can learn from older people about using technology - Bayes’s theorem: how an 18th-century priest gave us the tools to reason better - Competing in a world of sectors without borders - Inside the mind of the CEO: Keeping Cool under Pressure - An Introduction to Dew Computing: Definition, Concept and Implications - Cheat Sheets for AI, Neural Networks, Machine Learning, Deep Learning & Big Data - Benefits & Risks of Biotechnology - The Moral Machine experiment - COP24: 12 years from disaster – editors’ guide to what our academic experts say is needed to fight climate change - 10 data analytics success stories: An inside look *Events / Announcements* - CSI, IEEE CS, IEEE PCS & HCC: Presentation on Digital Marketing and Website Design using WordPress on 10th Dec 2018 - Digital Disruption and Transformation Summit 2018 on 13th Dec 2018 - ACM India Chennai Professional Chapter's Expert Lecture on "Bias in the Web” on 12th Dec 2018 - Smart India Hackathon 2019 - ARPIT: Annual Refresher Programme in Teaching: Online professional development of in-service teachers’ of higher education, using MOOCs Read at http://infoforuse.blogspot.com/2018/12/interesting-reads-2018-12-06.html Archives at http://infoforuse.blogspot.com/2018/05/interesting-reads-archives.html *Feedback* We will be pleased to have your feedback on the “Interesting Reads” posts being sent once in five days. Pl. share the links of any interesting things you come across so that we can include them in these email posts. Also, pl. share the email ids of your colleagues, friends, peers and contacts, if you want them to be included in the google group to get regular posts. Pl. send all your communications to hrmohan.ieee@gmail.com With regards HR Mohan *======================================================== * *Articles* *What younger people can learn from older people about using technology* Older people are often portrayed in the media as being technically challenged. Jokes are often shared on social media about older people taking photos on their phones with their thumb covering the lens, or accidentally installing viruses on computers. Some of these damaging stereotypes impact upon how ordinary Australians interact with older age cohorts. A study published by the Australian Human Rights commission found 20% of Australians avoid conversations about technology with older people as they feel explanations will take a long time and a lot of effort. But older people can and do use technology – and younger generations could learn a thing or two from them about how to have a healthier relationship with digital technologies like social media. Full Post https://theconversation.com/what-younger-people-can-learn-from-older-people-... Related https://www.yellow.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Yellow-Social-Media-Rep...: How older Australians use social media. 2018 YellowSocial Media Report Related https://www.humanrights.gov.au/sites/default/files/document/publication/Fact...: Fact or fiction? Stereotypes of older Australians. A study report Related https://theconversation.com/connecting-online-can-help-prevent-social-isolat...: Connecting online can help prevent social isolation in older people *Bayes’s theorem: how an 18th-century priest gave us the tools to reason better* The pioneering work of an 18th-century English priest named Reverend Thomas Bayes, in statistics uncovered an immensely powerful mental tool that, if properly used, can drastically improve the way we reason about the world. Full Post https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2018/11/30/18096751/bayes-theorem-rule-ra... *Competing in a world of sectors without borders* Digitization is causing a radical reordering of traditional industry boundaries. What will it take to play offense and defense in tomorrow’s ecosystems? Full Post https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/mckinsey-analytics/our-insights/... *Inside the mind of the CEO: Keeping Cool under Pressure * For Greg Lehmkuhl, president and CEO of Lineage Logistics, temperature-controlled supply chains for perishables are one of the world’s next great platforms. Refrigerated transportation and storage is one of those specialized industrial sectors in which new approaches to strategy and operational excellence can make a huge difference. It’s also an enabler of civilization that nobody notices much – unless they have to live without it. Over the last 20 years, the temperature-controlled logistics sector, as it’s officially called, has quietly but dramatically changed, thanks to three simultaneous global trends. The first is the broadening of nutritional awareness, as people around the world become more accustomed to eating fresh meats, fruits, vegetables, dairy products, and other perishables every day. The second has to do with lengthening food transportation distance. More and more consumers eat food that was sourced thousands of miles away. The third is the changing natural environment. Climate change and pollution, as they affect local agricultural and water supplies, are making society more reliant on diverse sources of fresh food and drink. The technological infrastructure that makes these changes possible is the temperature-controlled supply chain, which dates back about 150 years, to horse-drawn “iceman” carriages. Today’s systems use digitized controls that customize cold temperatures in warehouses and trucks for a wide variety of fresh and frozen foods. Most of this sector has, until recently, been run by small family businesses, but an ongoing wave of consolidation has changed that. Full Interview https://www.strategy-business.com/article/Keeping-Cool-under-Pressure : (under the column: Inside the Mind of the CEO) *An Introduction to Dew Computing: Definition, Concept and Implications* Since the end of the 1990s, the world has witnessed a tremendous growth in the area of information and communication technology (ICT), starting with grid computing, cloud computing (CC), and fog computing to recently introduced edge computing. Although, these technologies are still in very good shape, they do heavily rely on connectivity, i.e., Internet. To address this challenge, this paper proposes a novel dew-cloud architecture that brings the power of CC together with the dew computing (DC). Originally, the dew-cloud architecture is an extension of the existing client-server architecture, where two servers are placed at both ends of the communication link. With the help of a dew server, a user has more control and flexibility to access his/her personal data in the absence of an Internet connection. Primarily, the data are stored at the dew server as a local copy upon which instantiation of the Internet is synchronized with the master copy at the cloud side. Users can browse, read, write, or append data on the local dew site, which is a local Web form of an actual website. With the incorporation of the dew domain naming system and dew domain name redirection, mapping between different local dew sites has become possible. Novel services, such as infrastructure-as-a-dew, software-as-a-dew service, and software-as-a-dew product, are, hereby, introduced along with the DC. This paper presents the following as key contributions: 1) a precise and concrete definition of DC; 2) detailed and comprehensive discussions of its concept and working principle; 3) application potentials; and 4) technical challenges. The motto of this paper is to conceptualize the fact of empowerment of the ICT-user base with almost an Internet-free surfing experience in coming days. Full Paper https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8114187 Related https://www.cmswire.com/internet-of-things/cloud-computing-takes-a-back-seat...: Cloud Computing Takes a Back Seat to ... Edge Computing. Or Is It Fog? *Cheat Sheets for AI, Neural Networks, Machine Learning, Deep Learning & Big Data* The Most Complete List of Best AI Cheat Sheets Over the past few months, I have been collecting AI cheat sheets. From time to time I share them with friends and colleagues and recently I have been getting asked a lot, so I decided to organize and share the entire collection. To make things more interesting and give context, I added descriptions and/or excerpts for each major topic. This is the most complete list and the Big-O is at the very end, enjoy… Full Post https://becominghuman.ai/cheat-sheets-for-ai-neural-networks-machine-learnin... *Benefits & Risks of Biotechnology* How are scientists putting nature’s machinery to use for the good of humanity, and how could things go wrong? Biotechnology is nearly as old as humanity itself. The food you eat and the pets you love? You can thank our distant ancestors for kickstarting the agricultural revolution, using artificial selection for crops, livestock, and other domesticated animals. When Edward Jenner invented vaccines and when Alexander Fleming discovered antibiotics, they were harnessing the power of biotechnology. And, of course, modern civilization would hardly be imaginable without the fermentation processes that gave us beer, wine, and cheese! When he coined the term in 1919, the agriculturalist Karl Ereky described ‘biotechnology’ as “all lines of work by which products are produced from raw materials with the aid of living things.” In modern biotechnology, researchers modify DNA and proteins to shape the capabilities of living cells, plants, and animals into something useful for humans. Biotechnologists do this by sequencing, or reading, the DNA found in nature, and then manipulating it in a test tube – or, more recently, inside of living cells. In fact, the most exciting biotechnology advances of recent times are occurring at the microscopic level (and smaller!) within the membranes of cells. After decades of basic research into decoding the chemical and genetic makeup of cells, biologists in the mid-20th century launched what would become a multi-decade flurry of research and breakthroughs. Their work has brought us the powerful cellular tools at biotechnologists’ disposal today. In the coming decades, scientists will use the tools of biotechnology to manipulate cells with increasing control, from precision editing of DNA to synthesizing entire genomes from their basic chemical building blocks. These cells could go on to become bomb-sniffing plants, miracle cancer drugs, or ‘de-extincted’ wooly mammoths. And biotechnology may be a crucial ally in the fight against climate change. But rewriting the blueprints of life carries an enormous risk. To begin with, the same technology being used to extend our lives could instead be used to end them. While researchers might see the engineering of a supercharged flu virus as a perfectly reasonable way to better understand and thus fight the flu, the public might see the drawbacks as equally obvious: the virus could escape, or someone could weaponize the research. And the advanced genetic tools that some are considering for mosquito control could have unforeseen effects, possibly leading to environmental damage. The most sophisticated biotechnology may be no match for Murphy’s Law. While the risks of biotechnology have been fretted over for decades, the increasing pace of progress – from low cost DNA sequencing to rapid gene synthesis to precision genome editing – suggests biotechnology is entering a new realm of maturity regarding both beneficial applications and more worrisome risks. Adding to concerns, DIY scientists are increasingly taking biotech tools outside of the lab. For now, many of the benefits of biotechnology are concrete while many of the risks remain hypotheticals, but it is better to be proactive and cognizant of the risks than to wait for something to go wrong first and then attempt to address the damage. Full Post http://futureoflife.org/background/benefits-risks-biotechnology *The Moral Machine experiment* With the rapid development of artificial intelligence have come concerns about how machines will make moral decisions, and the major challenge of quantifying societal expectations about the ethical principles that should guide machine behaviour. To address this challenge, we deployed the Moral Machine, an online experimental platform designed to explore the moral dilemmas faced by autonomous vehicles. This platform gathered 40 million decisions in ten languages from millions of people in 233 countries and territories. Here we describe the results of this experiment. First, we summarize global moral preferences. Second, we document individual variations in preferences, based on respondents’ demographics. Third, we report cross-cultural ethical variation, and uncover three major clusters of countries. Fourth, we show that these differences correlate with modern institutions and deep cultural traits. We discuss how these preferences can contribute to developing global, socially acceptable principles for machine ethics. All data used in this article are publicly available. Full Article https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0637-6 *COP24: 12 years from disaster – editors’ guide to what our academic experts say is needed to fight climate change* World leaders are gathering in Katowice, Poland, to negotiate the world’s response to climate change. The 24th Conference of the Parties (COP24) will last from December 3-14 and its primary aim is to reach agreement on how the Paris Agreement of 2015 will be implemented. In a year which saw record weather extremes and an extraordinary announcement from the UN that we have only 12 years to limit catastrophe, the need for meaningful progress has never been greater. To explain how the COP works and what it means for the fight against climate change, we asked our academic experts to share their views. Full Post https://theconversation.com/cop24-12-years-from-disaster-editors-guide-to-wh... *10 data analytics success stories: An inside look* If data is the new oil, then knowing how to refine it into actionable intelligence is the key to unleashing its potential. To this end, CIOs are playing with predictive analytics, crafting machine learning algorithms and battle-testing analytics solutions in pursuit of businesses efficiencies and new ways to serve customers. Worldwide revenues for big data and business analytics software will top $166 billion this year, an increase of 11.7 percent over 2017, according to market researcher IDC. Moreover, the war for talent who can work with emerging analytics technologies is at a fever pitch. Some CIOs who have found ways to boost top- and bottom-line growth crunching through data recently shared lessons learned and advice for peers undertaking similar efforts. Here’s how leading CIOs are successfully tapping data analytics and machine learning to achieve business goals. Full Post https://www.cio.com/article/3221621/analytics/6-data-analytics-success-stori... *Events / Announcements* *CSI, IEEE CS, IEEE PCS & HCC: Presentation on Digital Marketing and Website Design using WordPress on 10th Dec 2018* CSI, IEEE CS, IEEE PCS & HCC invites you all for a presentation on Digital Marketing and Website Design using WordPress on Monday, 10th Dec 2018 at 6.00 p.m. at the Seminar Hall, CSI Education Directorate, Taramani, Chennai – 600113 The pdf invite is at https://drive.google.com/open?id=1h1gUPlmuxlPzvTdYZ1wgk1jxFahX_2_o The pgm is free but pre-registration at https://goo.gl/forms/EsWmLjYGfM5MYJB32 is a must to facilitate logistics *Digital Disruption and Transformation Summit 2018 on 13th Dec 2018* FICCI TNSC with support from Government of Tamil Nadu is organizing its 3rd Edition of Digital Disruption and Transformation Conference (also known at DT3), the 3rd annual flagship event of FICCI under the theme of “Digital Rumpus – Perish or Prosper” on 13th December 2018 at Hotel ITC Grand Chola, Chennai. CSI & IEEE members are eligible for 10% discount in the registration fee. The discount code to be applied at the time of registration is CSIDT3, IEEEDT3 respectively. Early Bird Deep Discounts are available for registrations done till 30th November 2018. For details pl. visit http://ficci-tnsc.com/it-ddts-2018/ or contact: Mr R Sudharsan at sudharsan.ramu@ficci.com, 044-42849614-15 *ACM India Chennai Professional Chapter's Expert Lecture on "Bias in the Web” on 12th Dec 2018* ACM India Chennai Professional Chapter's Expert Lecture on "Bias in the Web" by ACM Distinguished Speaker, Dr. Ricardo Baeza-Yates , CTO of NTENT (a Semantic Search Technology Company) at Aryabhatta Hall, Department of CSE, IIT Madras on 12th December 2:30 p.m. Registration is FREE. However, if you intend to attend the talk, please register https://goo.gl/forms/EH5xEdTQyFMpn1zf2 to facilitate logistics. *Smart India Hackathon 2019* Smart India Hackathon 2019 is a nationwide initiative to provide students a platform to solve some of pressing problems we face in our daily lives, and thus inculcate a culture of product innovation and a mindset of problem solving. SIH2019 is an initiative by Ministry of HRD, AICTE, Persistent Systems, i4c and Rambhau Mhalgi Prabodhini and involves 1 Lakh+ technical students, 3000+ technical institutions, 200+ organizations from across India and touted to be the world’s biggest Software and Hardware hackathon. More details at *https://www.sih.gov.in/sih2019 https://www.sih.gov.in/sih2019* Register at https://www.sih.gov.in/signup *ARPIT: Annual Refresher Programme in Teaching: Online professional development of in-service teachers’ of higher education, using MOOCs* ARPIT, launched by MHRD is 40 hour programme with 20 hours of video content offered in a highly flexible format which can be done at one’s own pace and time. The programme has built-in assessment exercises and activities as part of the academic progression in the course. At the end of the course, there is a provision for terminal assessment which can be either online or written examination. It has been decided by the UGC that successful completion of the courses offered under the ARPIT programme with 40 hour of instruction material with a proctored examination will be treated as equivalent to one Refresher Course for the purposes of Career Advancement. To enrol visit: https://swayam.gov.in/search?CategoryList=Annual%20Refresher%20Programme%20i...) *Archives of Interesting Reads * To access the past posts of Interesting Reads, pl. visit http://infoforuse.blogspot.in/2018/05/interesting-reads-archives.html *Feedback* We will be pleased to have your feedback on the “Interesting Reads” posts being sent once in five days. Pl. share the links of any interesting things you come across so that we can include them in these email posts. Also, pl. share the email ids of your colleagues, friends, peers and contacts, if you want them to be included in the google group to get regular posts. Pl. send all your communications to hrmohan.ieee@gmail.com With regards HR Mohan