Artificial intelligence (AI) has a long history, with roots dating back to the 1950s. It was at this time Alan Turing introduced the idea of a thinking machine, and the idea that it is possible to create machines that can mimic human intelligence and perform tasks that normally require human cognition, such as learning, problem solving, and decision making.
A key development in technology was the invention of the digital computer in the 1940/50s. Back then computers took up rooms of space because vacuum tubes just took up lots of space. Computers had the ability to perform complex calculations quickly and accurately, and they laid the foundation for the development of more advanced AI systems. A key component of computers is memory. They too took up lots of space (check out the history of memory). The invention of the transistor in 1947 paved the way to smaller and more compact computers decades later.
In the 1950s, researchers began to consider the possibility of using computers to simulate human intelligence. One of the first researchers to propose this idea was Alan Turing, who is considered to be the father of modern computer science. Turing’s work laid the foundation for the development of the first AI programs, using computers which were designed to perform specific tasks such as playing chess or solving mathematical problems.
In the 1960s and 1970s, AI research focused on developing programs that could understand and process natural language, as well as on creating expert systems that could make decisions based on rules and data. In the 1980s and 1990s, AI research expanded to include machine learning, which involves developing algorithms that allow computers to learn from data without being explicitly programmed.
AI Today
Today, it is common to have Siri, Cortana, Alexa, and Google on our phones or home appliances. Through language recognition, you can ask them anything and they can help you answer things you can normally search on the web. But we know they aren’t quite like what Alan Turing has described.
Nevertheless, there is technology out there now in their infancy where the Turing’s conditions have been exceeded, and where people on the receiving end of the chat session can no longer tell if the other side is actually an artificial intelligence. The system sounds and reasons like a human being. Check out openai.com. and you will see what I mean. Below you will see how the AI responded to my question about “why people celebrate Christmas.”
source: chat.openai.com
There are other AI technologies out there that aid humans in various ways. Check these out:
Novel AI – this technology is based on the same technology at chat.openai.com. However they have monetized the technology to help content creators build stories of certain genres. The assistance comes in the form of content and images.
DALL-E 2 – this technology is the image side of openai.com. You can describe the image you have in mind using text and the AI will create the image you describe.
Below is an image I had the AI create using this description: “an oil painting by Dally of a Japanese garden during the spring just at the first light of the morning“
In my opinion, three things converged to make today’s AI possible”:
Cheap memory: In the 1970s computers ran with as little as 8K of RAM. Today 8K is several orders of magnitude smaller than even the built-in memory cache of common CPUs (Central Processing Units). CPUs come with level 1 to 3 cache, which can go from around 384K to 32MB respectively!
Fast CPUs/GPUs: Today’s CPUs are leaps and bounds better than the original CPUs; CPUs today come with multiple cores (internal CPUs) running at multi-GHz clocks. In the late 1970s CPU only had one core and were running around 4.77Mhz.
Massive access to cloud compute/storage: Thanks to Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft’s Azure Cloud, and Google’s Cloud Services Platform, companies have the ability to develop and research AI technology without having to buy their own hardware.
AI in the Future
Things are changing rapidly in the field of AI. The next major leap in computing technology is in quantum computing. Quantum computing can perform certain computations faster than classical computers. With quantum computing, AI technology may continue to level up!
by admin·Comments Off on Rebelle 3 and My Inner Artist
Recently my wife and I attended one of these “paint night” events. We both drew works of art which surprisingly looked very good–enough so that we proudly hang them in our house.
Coincidentally, I also saw an add in my yahoo mailbox about an update to the Rebelle painting program. After revisiting that program, I realized how realistic that program is in terms of rendering paint–virtual paint that is. After a few trial runs, I have come up with my work of art based on what seen Bob Ross do in his show.
Check it out below.
Sun Rise
I like Rebelle 3. It allows me to paint without the mess of real paint. It allows the ability to mix (smudge or blend) virtual paint with realistic effects. Here are a few things you’ll notice weith Rebelle 3:
use paper texture, canvas, or none (they have others you can buy to create material surface texture)
paint with water color, acrylic, ink, pastel, and pencil
paint blotching effect based on amount of water being simulated in paint
paint on dry material
paint on wet material
dry or wet paint.
use of stencils
tilting of canvas which causes paint to drip
All of the above features is what makes Rebelle 3 stand out from its competition. Besides, if you’ve painted before, the simulated mixing and smudging make it a natural to quickly learn.
There is one thing I wish they had–a way to apply paint with palette knife instead of a brush. It would make creating mountains a lot easier–a la Bob Ross style.
Note that if you are going to do the same, it would be best to use a digitizing tablet. Trying to draw with a mouse it tough to do.
by admin·Comments Off on Phishing & Other Email Scams
beware of email scams
Several years ago, the most common email scam was the lure of the Nigerian Prince who needed help in moving millions of dollars from his account to a safer account outside his country. And all he needed was a kind-hearted soul who was willing to provide him their bank information to make the transfer. In return, the good samaritan would get a percentage of that money.
What is the aim of these email scams? Money. It is always about money. For the Nigerian prince, once your bank account is compromised, the hacker behind the facade, can siphon off whatever balance you may have in your bank account.
Email Trends
I heard in a conference I attended several months ago, that a white hat hacker put an end to the Nigerian email scam years ago, and that’s why you and everyone else isn’t hearing much from the prince. However, there are a new breed for email scams out there, and they fall into these general categories:
phishing
impersonation
extortion
Like the Nigerian prince scam, these email scam trends are all about money–stealing your money or money you have access to.
Phishing
Phishing’s goal is to steal your account information. It is done through a simple but official looking email from a trusted organization–except it is really bogus. The email might say something to the effect that you need to verify your account at your bank in order to ensure security. To do this, all you need to do is click on a link which takes you to a nice looking web page that looks like the bank’s web page. But it isn’t. It asks you for your account name and password, and after you submit it, it may say something like page can’t be found, something went wrong, redirect you to the actual bank web site, or something else. Regardless, once you click submit, they got your account. That is pure phishing.
If it was your email account that was compromised, then the result of this phishing hack could result in more phishing hacks on your contacts or other folks in your organization if the email account if for work.
Phishing is really the entry point for a hacker’s ability to monetize their efforts.
Impersonation
Anyone can impersonate anybody else on the Internet through email. How? Because anyone can create an email account with almost anyone’s name–provided the account isn’t already taken. And even then, anyone can use anyone’s name as their email display name; that is, if my email address is xyz123@gmail.com, I can use, for example “Prince Charles” as the display name. And if I was in anyway associated with or related to the actual Prince Charles, I may think that the email actually came the the prince.
Impersonation can be monetized in many ways. Two of the most common ways are:
asking for a favor by requesting gift cards
asking for a list of employee information
For the case of the gift cards, the way the perpetrator gets money is by pretending to be a person’s manager or some high ranking official in an organization. The hacker scouts out an organization’s web site and figures out the organizational structure and finds names of managers and direct reports. Once they find this, they are all set.
They simply create an email account on gmail, yahoo, or many other email sources, and sets the display name to the name of the manager whom an employee reports to. The email is sent in a very simple form–asking if the employee is in the office. If the employee responds, the ploy begins with the hacker posing as the manager and that the manager is in a meeting and needs some gift cards. And so the impersonator asks the employee for a favor to purchase one or more gift cards with a promise to get paid immediately after the manager gets out of the meeting.
If the employee agrees to help out, the impersonator asks the employee to simply take pictures of the gift cards and email the pictures back. Once the employee does this, the money is gone and the employee is out a few dollars.
This scenario is playing out everyday across the country. And it is happening non-stop because it works!
Extortion
This one is a little different, and it plays into people’s fears of the ability of hackers to capture people’s activities online. A typical extortion email in this class of scam comes in with the FROM address of the email matching the target’s email address. The claim is that the hacker hacked the target’s email account, and that on top of that, the hacker has videos and pictures of the target’s Internet activities. The hacker claims that they will expose these potentially reputation-killing information to the Internet should the target not pay up. All they need to begin this is your email address.
To pay up, the target would need to buy bitcoin click a link in the email and paste a real long string key into that web page. Once the target pays up, they are safe.
Believe it or not, some people fall for this. And it doesn’t take much success rate for the hacker to make money. They make money, and that is why they do this.
A more destructive type of extortion is the type that infects and encrypts files on your computer. These ones preys on people without any computer anti-virus or anti-malware solutions.
These can come in as an email that looks official claiming that there is an invoice you must pay or your credit will be ruined, or some other threatening reason. In the email is an attachment that looks like an invoice, but when you open it, it installs and runs malware on your computer which encrypts all your pictures, videos, and other documents. You won’t know about it until after a few days when it pops open a page saying that you must pay up to decrypt your files.
In this situation, they too ask that you buy bitcoin to pay for this. After you pay, they will give you a string key to decrypt your files.
Now, I don’t know if this is true, but the hackers seem to keep their word. People’s files are restored after they pay up, but I woudn’t really bet on it. Anyway, if you don’t want to fall prey to this, don’t open any attachments you receive via email unless you know what it is.
Conclusion
If you don’t get anything from this article, get at least this:
You cannot trust anything you get via email. If in doubt don’t open attachments or click links. If the email looks like it is coming from someone you know, call them to verify.
by admin·Comments Off on Downgrade to Android Marshmallow on a Samsung Galaxy S7
Samsung Galaxy S7
Normally I would not care about matters like this. But what motivated me to do this was related to an app that was very useful while my phone was at version 6.01 (Marshmallow) of Android which stopped working after I updated to version 7 (Nougat). This app is called PdaNet + for Android by JuneFabrics. It provided me a Wi-Fi hotspot without the cost of a hotspot subscription from the wireless cell phone service provider.
If you are in the same boat as me, where an app stopped working after updating to Android 7 (Nougat), then this article is for you.
This article will show you how to downgrade to Marshmallow and restore functionality you need on your phone.
Samsung USB driver <– make sure to have this installed first before you do anything else; it will be one less thing to worry about. Or if you have the Smart Switch program, you can use that to install the underlying USB drivers as well.
This video from MrW0lf provides some visuals on how to do this; it assumes you’ve already installed the Samsung USB drivers or the Smart Switch program.
by admin·Comments Off on Which Programming Language Should You Learn? JAVA!
For decades, I’ve been tackling this question. Note that I’m not a professional programmer, but have done some level of coding as a professional for testing purposes, and various programs just for fun as a hobby. My programming experience goes back to when I was in high school where I was introduced to BASIC and Z80 machine programming. Then in college, I learned FORTRAN. When I worked on my masters, I learned ADA and C.If you’ve seen the evolution of computers, you can probably guess my rough age. Along the way, I also learned PASCAL and JAVA on my own. A couple of years ago I started playing around with web technology which introduced me to HTML, CSS, PHP, and JAVASCRIPT. I also messed around with PYTHON.
As you can see, I’ve dabbled with several languages, but never really became very proficient in any of them. Today, I started to look back into this and have decided that I wanted to go back to learning JAVA.
Without realizing it, JAVA turned out to be the most popular programming language out there (see TIOBE Index for May 2017). As of May 2017, JAVA sits at #1 getting a popularity rating of 14.639%. Second is C at 7.002%, and thirs is C++ at 4.751. As you can see, JAVA is way out in front in terms of language popularity. See table below which I extracted from the reference link.
JAVA is most popular (reference: TIOBE Index for May 2017)
I believe the reasons are as follows:
Apps in Android are developed using JAVA.
JAVA is platform independent, meaning if you write code on one platform, say Windows, you can run it on another, like Mac OS, or Linux.
JAVA is also the language used to develop apps embedded in various network devices (like Amazon’s Fire stick).
Lastly, it is a general purpose language that is used in various industries, and if you are looking to get employed as a software developer/engineer, you’ll have a higher chance at landing one if you are good in JAVA.
If you are trying to figure out which language to learn, check into JAVA.
I’ve recently found many books out there, but they are so old. I did find one the is a suitable one for beginners or someone trying to get a refresher on it. It is Java Programming 24-Hour Trainer by Yakov Fain. It is set up like a workbook with exercises at the end, and its contents cover all aspect of JAVA from being a desktop application to being a server solution. I was published in 2015 which is pretty recent considering a lot of books out there on JAVA are over a decade old.
If you have any opinions about this, please comment below.
Today, Wednesday, 10 May 2017, I happen to see Amazon’s ad for the new Echo Show. It really looks like something from a science fiction movie…except it isn’t. If you watch the video, you’ll see what I mean.
Note that this will actually become available on 28 Jun 2017 for $229. It’s actually not bad considering the original echo was introduced at a price of $199–no video, just audio.
I was really tempted to buy one, but I thought…”Do I really need one?” I suppose right now I don’t, but maybe this will go on sale come black Friday in November.
If you buy one, please share with a comment below. Let us know what you think.
by admin·Comments Off on Microsoft Education Announcement — Windows 10 S
May 2, 2017, Microsoft introduced their Google App for Education (GAFE) ecosystem killer–Windows 10S, Minecraft Edu, Insight, and Office 365 Teams.
Having seen how Microsoft missed the boat back in 2012 when GAFE in combination with inexpensive Chromebooks were on the verge of taking over the education market, I can honestly say that today’s announcement has put Microsoft ahead of Google in terms of their offerings–starting with Windows 10 S, on platforms with a base price of $189.
Nevertheless, Microsoft has a big challenge ahead of itself. For the past 5 years, Google has grown its roots deep into the education market with the abundance of inexpensive Chromebook device alternatives. That’s because many school districts in the US have adopted the Chromebook as their standard platform for assessment testing and web-based curricular programs. At the district where I work, the number of Chromebook devices has skyrocketed to around 26,000 units with another 9,000 on order soon. The teachers like them because they boot up in a matter of around 6 to 10 seconds compared to the older Windows-based laptops that would take around 30 seconds to 2 minutes to completely boot up. Technicians like them because they are easy to re-image, and there isn’t much to fix. Through Google’s management console, all these Chromebooks are easy to manage.
The solutions announced by Microsoft today has met and exceeded the capabilities of Google. From what I see, the fact that Windows 10 S can boot up in 5 seconds is a major plus. The base price of $189 is also a major plus. Where they will beat google are in these areas:
Availability of Minecraft.edu.
Applications that are mostly non-internet dependent
Ease of image deployment in small scale environment–through the use of a flash drive.
Ease of device management in large scale through Insight
Free Windows 10 S on genuine Windows Pro PCs
Integration with next generation technology like 3D and augmented reality applications
Windows 10 S
All these are supposed to be available to schools this summer. Unfortunately and realistically, it may be two to three years before they make deep inroads into schools that are already using Chromebooks. This is assuming that they are able to maintain their technological edge.
The existing drive was still functional and served as the root drive (drive C).
It had a capacity of 500GB but was short on space due to the massive amount of photos my wife was saving on her existing desktop.
These photos are priceless. I can’t imagine losing these pictures as they are irreplaceable.
Here’s what I planned in order to get the new drive to take over without having to redo everything (from re-installing the operating system and re-installing all her existing applications):
Do a backup of her profile, along with all her files, create a recovery image of the system, and create a system repair disk
Remove the old disk drive, then install the new larger disk drive
Boot of the recovery/repair disk and restore the system image
Done
Backing Up User Profile/Create System Image/Create System Repair disk
Using Windows 7’s built-in backup and restore utility, I proceeded to do three things:
Backup my wife’s user files
Create a System Image
Create a System Repair Disk
Backup My Wife’s User Files
Of utmost importance is to first ensure my wife’s priceless photographs are safe. To do this, I purchased a Seagate Expansion 5TB Desktop External Hard Drive USB 3.0 (STEB5000100) (FYI: This is an Amazon.com affiliate link). This should serve me well for storing file backups as well as the system image I will be creating in the next section.
To launch Windows 7 Backup and Restore utility, click START, then in the search field enter “backup and restore” and this will show the Backup and Restore utility. Select it to open. You should see this simple utility interface pop up:
Backup and Restore Utility
Now click Set up backup and follow the prompts. You should see a screen just like below. In the image, you see arrows pointing to potential backup destinations. In this particular example, my 5TB USB drive isn’t connected, but if it was, it would show up as another disk drive with over 4.5 TB of free space. That was the drive I actually selected for my backup destination.
Target Backup Destination Drive
In general, you will want to select the target drive with sufficient space to take on large backups. After you select the destination drive, click Next and follow the prompts. At a certain point, you will have the opportunity to change any default settings, but in general, unless you really know what you are doing, you can leave default settings as they are. Then invoke the backup now. Depending how much data you have, it could take anywhere from several minutes to a few hours. Mine took a few hours (around 3 hours I think).
Create a System Image
During the backup process, you will have the option to select to have a system image made. Make sure to set that. I did this to save myself a lot of time doing software and driver re-installs. Believe me, it is worth it.
Note that I had problems creating a system image. I figured that this was due to not having enough disk space left on the root drive (drive C) as my wife’s photos used up most of the disk drive space. Having backed up the photos, I proceeded to delete all her photo folders. This was a scary thing because at this point, I am putting my trust in Microsoft’s backup utility to save me should something go south with this process. After doing this, I was able to build a system image.
Create a System Repair Disk
When the system finishes creating both the user file backups and the system image, it will prompt you about creating a system repair disk. I opted to do this. I readied my DVD-R disc; it takes one.
Remove Old Disk Drive and Install New One
At this point in time, I turned off the computer and removed the old disk drive and placed the new one.
Use System Repair Disk to Restore the Saved System Image
This is where the actual recovery process begins. Before I using the system repair disk, I configured the system BIOS to seek the DVD drive first as the boot device, then pressed F10 to save and exit the BIOS setup. I placed my system repair disk in the DVD drive my Gateway NV79, then restarted the computer by simply turning it OFF then turning it ON.
The laptop began to boot from the DVD and determined that I will be doing an image restore. At this point, I still had my 5TB external USB drive connected to the laptop. After the utility gets started, you will opt to restore from an image.
It was at this point that I encountered the error that the system could not restore the image because the system repair disk says “No disk that can be used for recovering the system disk can be found.” After seeing this, I thought perhaps I needed to match the partition configuration of the original drive, so I ran diskpart.exe and tried this. It didn’t work. After trying a few things that didn’t work, I finally gave in by doing a search on google. I found the answer at answers.microsoft.com. It turns out, all I needed to do on the disk drive was to run diskpart.exe, select the drive, and invoke CLEAR on it.
After I did this, the image restore process worked as it should have in the first place.
Everything that was on the original disk drive was restored, less the photos.
To fix this, I simply invoked the file/folder restore within the backup and restore utility and selected the photo folders to be restored.
Conclusion
What I thought was going to be a routine process turned out to be one heck of an effort. What really screwed me up was Windows 7 image restore now working the way it should in the first place without having to execute the DISKPART utility’s CLEAR command on the new drive.
by admin·Comments Off on Windows 10 Upgrade Failed with Error C1900101-20017
In the process of updating my grandson’s new computer (an Acer Nitro V15 laptop) from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10, I ran into the error C1900101-20017—some error about Windows failing to update.
I tried to update it again, but I ended up with the same result–Windows 10 upgrade failed.
Finally, I realized that there is a UEFI firmware interface option called Secure Boot, an operating system protection mechanism against root kits, which could probably be blocking the update. To get to this, I needed to get to UEFI by pressing F2 (your computer may have a different means to get to this) while the computer is powering up.
Once in UEFI, I disabled the Secure Boot option in the Boot tab, saved the settings, and restarted. I again attempted a Windows 10 upgrade, and this time it worked!
If this worked for you, let me know by commenting below.
by admin·Comments Off on The ASUS ROG G751JL-DS71 17.3″ Gaming Laptop
I’ve been looking for a nice but cost effective gaming laptop for some time now. After over a month of searching, I found the ASUS ROG G751JL-DS71 17.3-Inch Gaming Laptop which my wife purchased for me at Amazon.com. At the time of purchase, the unit cost $1199. For this price I got an awesome ASUS gaming laptop with the following specs:
The laptop performed extremely well. Specifically, I didn’t perceive any lag in any of the games I’ve played. Even with the graphics settings set to maximum, the laptop ran and displayed the games smoothly. In addition, the fast 7400 RPM 1TB hard disk drive really showed off ASUS ROG G751JS’s speed in terms of boot time. I could really perceive its fast boot speed having used a solid state drive on a work laptop.
I could easily run a benchmark test on the unit, but my own senses really could really tell that this unit is a computing and gaming workhorse. At the price my wife purchased this for, $1199 is well worth the price. Depending on supply and demand, the price for this awesome gaming laptop could go up or down.
I highly recommend this laptop, especially if you are looking for a cost effective entry level gaming laptop. Note that the only “entry level” about this laptop is its price.
If you have the same laptop, please share your experience by commenting below.
by Yakov Fain. It is set up like a workbook with exercises at the end, and its contents cover all aspect of JAVA from being a desktop application to being a server solution. I was published in 2015 which is pretty recent considering a lot of books out there on JAVA are over a decade old.
. It really looks like something from a science fiction movie…except it isn’t. If you watch the video, you’ll see what I mean.
(FYI: this is an Amazon affiliate link) in hopes to provide my wife’s old Gateway NV79 laptop a new lease on life.
(FYI: This is an Amazon.com affiliate link). This should serve me well for storing file backups as well as the system image I will be creating in the next section.
