My Doux

22/07/2015

Proud 1 year of Performance, Diligence and Achievement!!!

26/06/2015

22/05/2015

Google to announce Brillo, Operating System for IoT

Google is working on a new operating system that will power Internet of Things (IoT), a news published on The Information is reporting today. According to the exclusive article, Google’s new operating system could run on low-powered devices, possibly with as few as 64 or 32 megabytes of RAM only. Google is likely to release the software next week and probably under the Android brand, says article.

Internet of Thigns (IoT) has been the hottest technologies recently and C # Corner just announced a new category on IoT to publish articles and news related to IoT.

Microsoft is ready to release its new operating system Windows 10 and one of the editions of Windows 10 is developed for IoT is called Windows 10 IoT Core.

21/05/2015

Public Wi-Fi Can Be Used To Steal Information: Mohamed Djenane, IT Expert

DUBAI: Public Wi-Fi can be very risky if users are not fully aware of it and could be used to steal private information from consumers, according to a leading IT expert.

"Cybercriminals are well aware and have developed techniques to steal information, identity or passwords and money from the users who use public or insecure Wi-Fi connections," Mohamed Djenane, Security Specialist at ESET Middle East said.

The worst thing to do is assume without verification that a Wi-Fi network is legitimate and run by a trusted establishment, he said.

It might be a decoy deployed by a criminal! As a general rule, users shouldn't connect to any network called, 'Free Wi-Fi'- it could well be a way of getting them to sign up for a newsletter or endure adverts, even if the hotspot isn't malicious, Djenane said.

The safer alternative is to connect via a 3G or 4G data package. If it is a public service such as a coffee shop, then double checking the WiFi name with a member of staff is advisable, he said.

"On-the-go access to the internet is all by unavoidable and the widespread Wi-Fi promised by smart cities will bring with it a wide range of benefits," Djenane said.

"Knowing however that our lives today are heavily set in the digital domain, protecting our online presence must become an absolute priority. This might mean placing security over convenience and being smart, rather than sorry," he said.

The hackers are monitoring network traffic and are looking for users who type in passwords to email accounts, social networks and banking websites. It is therefore best to limit activities to anything that does not require a username and password to log in, he said.

Noting that using email apps on a phone can leak data as there are plenty of free apps that hackers can use to extract this information, Djenane said using a secure HTTPS website, or better still encryption, was definitely the safer route.

Typically, attacks on Wi-Fi hotspots are 'man-in-the- middle' attacks where an attacker is able to access the user's data as it travels. That means anything financial or corporate is out, he said.

Smart devices can give away a surprising amount of data from apps connecting to remote servers. It is always a good policy to police the list of 'known' networks thoroughly, he added.

15/05/2015

Going Beyond Touch Computing with Virtual Reality

Until now, we have used computational data as an addendum to the world, so it is just a matter of time before reality fits into the confines of a virtual world.

June 29, 2007, was a watershed for technology because it was on this day that the iPhone was launched. No longer would you have to press buttons on a mobile--you could flick your thumb up and down in a manner that was most intuitive. This was truly a revolution.
Sadly, everything else that has followed in personal computing is just an evolution. We have made the screens larger for tablets and smaller for watches, but nothing else has changed.
In effect, for almost eight years, there has not been any revolution in touch computing.
What could be next? Google Glass looked like a strong contender, but was creepily scary from a privacy angle, and died quickly--it became publicly available on May 15, 2014 (a prototype was available from April 15, 2013) and was stopped a mere eight months later on January 15, 2015, when Google said it would stop producing it. Google says that it is still committed to Glass, but what will happen next--and when--is a matter of speculation.
But Glass points the way--augmented reality, in one form or the other, is going to be the key. Until now, we have used computational data as an addendum to the world, so it is just a matter of time before reality fits into the confines of a virtual world.
This idea is not new. Over 2o years ago, in a column called Briar Bytes that I wrote for a college publication (the story never appeared because the publication was shelved; I don't remember if they accepted or rejected my piece, which contained words like teledildonics) I mentioned that virtual reality would drive our lives. Unfortunately, much of what I wrote has remained in the realm of science fiction.
Today, perhaps, things are changing. Companies like Facebook and Oculus Rift are experimenting with uses of VR because this could be the way social media is heading. If--rather, when--this happens, you could see social media coming full circle because you will be meeting your friends in different continents in a virtual world and chatting the way you were before technology came in and gave you crackberry thumbs.
In some ways, technology may perhaps disappear. As in the oft-quoted example of ubiquitous motors, you may find technology becoming so seamless that you will be able to meet your next-door neighbor and somebody a thousand kilometers away and not be able to tell the difference insofar as the interface is concerned.
This is not just eye candy. You will also perhaps be able to use all the information you need, and have only the right amount of information that you need so that you never suffer from data overload.
Of course, this Utopian dream also begs the question--if everybody had the right amount of information at all times, what will make you unique?
I don't know--but then again, a columnist's job is to raise questions, not to know all the answers.

12/05/2015

Dell makes UNIX to x86 migration easy with new PowerEdge R930 server

NGALORE, INDIA: Dell announced an expansion of its 13th generation PowerEdge servers including the PowerEdge R930, specifically designed for the most demanding enterprise applications such as in-memory databases, customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP).

Manish Gupta, Director, Enterprise Solutions Group, Dell India said “Enterprise applications today are pressed for better performance in organizations due to business demands, and data growth as a result of the forces of social, mobility, cloud and Big Data. The PowerEdge R930 has been developed with the aim of not just enabling customer to handle heavy enterprise application workloads that have arisen of new forces — but also enable them to deploy and configure it in lesser time. The device has compute at the core with flexibility to have more local storage with up to 24 drives with optional up to 8 PCIe Express Flash drives.”

With the PowerEdge R930, along with Dell software and services, many of these non-x86 customers can migrate from UNIX to Linux with ease and move to a more innovative, future-ready data center.

The PowerEdge R930 rack server can flexibly scale to optimize transactions and operations while reducing latency.

Organizations are increasingly turning to leading databases and analytics platforms such as Oracle 12c and SAP HANA running on Linux and x86 platforms. The PowerEdge R930 will serve as the hardware foundation for these appliances and integrated systems, helping customers speed time-to-value and maximize IT resource efficiency.

In addition to the PowerEdge R930 rack server, Dell is updating its PowerEdge VRTX and PowerEdge M1000e converged platforms, and introducing the PowerEdge FC830 and the PowerEdge M830 blade server as part of Dell’s 13th generation of PowerEdge servers.

05/05/2015

Google embeds engineers as professors

CALIFORNIA: Howard University freshman Alanna Walton knew something was different about the professor teaching her introduction to computer science course.

First, there was her name: Professor Sabrina. She was an African American woman, kept office hours until 2 am if that's what it took to see everyone, and had an additional title: Google In Residence.

"It was an awesome class," said Alanna who has already chosen her major at the Washington DC-based university: computer science.

In ongoing efforts to diversify Silicon Valley's tech sector, Google is embedding engineers at a handful of Historically Black Colleges and Universities where they teach, mentor and advise on curriculum.

Today 35% of African Americans receiving computer science degrees come from those schools, but they don't make their way to Silicon Valley's top tech firms. Google is typical — about 1% of its technical staffers are black.

Last year a push by civil rights advocate Jesse Jackson prompted several dozen tech firms to release workforce diversity data which showed under-representation of African Americans, Latinos and women in the field.

In response, businesses, universities and community leaders have launched initiatives aimed at diversifying their ranks, both ethnically and by gender. The Anita Borg Institute and the National Center for Women and Information Technology have partnered with many companies to support female engineers.

Facebook offers 'Facebook University,' an internship for low income minority college freshmen interested in computer science. Intel has committed $300 million over the next five years toward diversifying its workforce, while Apple has a $50 million partnership with nonprofits to support women and minority computer science majors.

Google decided to go to the source, sending a handful of software engineers to teach at Howard, Hampton University in Hampton, Virginia, Fisk University in Nashville, and Spelman and Morehouse colleges in Atlanta.

They taught introductory courses, but they also trained students on everything from how to send a professional email to how to make it through a software engineering job interview, which can involve a lot of time solving coding questions at a white board.

This summer, 30 of those students will be Google interns. And Howard University graduating senior Christopher Hocutt, 21, whose friends jokingly call him Mr Google, will be starting at the company full-time.

Hocutt said the Google In Residence professors convinced him to apply.

"What they discovered was a lot of people weren't even applying to Google because we didn't believe we were skilled enough to do it," he said. "Once we realized we have the skills, we just needed mentorship to make our resume look good, get through the interview, have confidence to try."

Google software engineer Sabrina Williams, who took a semester away from her Mountain View campus this year to mentor and teach at Howard, is thrilled to see her student becoming a colleague.

"I'm inspired," she said. "Change is slow, this is going to take time, but I think what's interesting about this program is that it's a different way of attacking the problem of lack of diversity in tech."

Fifteen years ago, Williams was the only female African American computer science major at Stanford University. "I kind of felt awkward so I kind of hid a lot," she said. "It was very difficult."

She said that while "teaching is hard" and the hours at Howard were grueling, she welcomed the opportunity to offer students an experience different from her own. This included taking female computer scientists aside early in the semester, telling them she was available for any questions, and encouraging them to support each other.

Legrand Burge, who chairs Howard University's computer science department, welcomes the temporary addition of Google engineers to his faculty.

"They're not academics but they have domain expertise that students could definitely learn a lot from," he said. "The word got out and it actually got a lot of students interested in computer science who didn't initially plan to study it."

Indeed, class sizes have doubled in intro courses. Williams had 70 students in one class; about 250 were taught so far this year by Google engineers at all five schools.

In the 1970s and 80s a similar program partnered the university with AT&T, Bell and Hewlett Packard, Burge said. This time, he said, Google is bringing a disruptive, Silicon Valley mentality to their campus.

"The issue with the East Coast and West Coast ecosystem, is that in the West there's a fail fast, fail often mentality," Burge said. "And there's a disconnect between academia, which does not have that try things out, dare to experiment, fail and learn about why you failed, come back and do better, culture."

05/05/2015

Net neutrality: COAI's campaign gets support of 4 million

NEW DELHI: Telecom lobby group COAI has claimed that 40 lakh mobile subscribers have supported its 'campaign' that calls for internet-based communication services such as WhatsApp and Skype be subjected to similar norms that apply to mobile operators.

The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) said that the 'support' has come through SMSes and voice calls made as part of this campaign over the past week and "the entire mobile number database of supporters is auditable on request by the appropriate agency."

READ ALSO: Netizens exult in people power

This comes in the backdrop of a raging debate over 'net neutrality' and allegations that telecom operators are hurting this concept of free internet access to all by giving preferential treatment to a select few service providers on their respective platforms.

Last week, the COAI had launched a campaign with the slogan 'Sabka Internet, Sabka Vikas', seeking a level playing field with net-based services like Skype and WhatApp.

The industry body said if the telecom operators are not offered a level playing field with net-based services, then their businesses would be viable only by raising data prices by up to six times.

Click here for complete coverage on net neutrality

Such high rates, they said, would become unaffordable for a large number of people, denying them access to the internet.

"The campaign championed the cause of customers choosing what they would like to access in the web space, benefiting from affordable internet packages and with the same rules being applicable to services as well.

"COAI started the outreach effort to ensure mobile customers have the freedom to benefit from the power of the internet in the way they would wish to, including the choice of platform, device and technology," COAI director general Rajan S Mathews said.

READ ALSO: What is net neutrality and why it is important?

The debate on 'net neutrality' was triggered in India by mobile operator Airtel introducing an open marketing platform 'Airtel Zero', and Trai's consultation paper on whether telecom firms can be allowed to charge different rates for different uses of internet data like e-mail, internet browsing and use of apps like Whatsapp, Viber and Skype.

30/04/2015

WHO Joins the Push for Greater Disclosure of Clinical Trial Data

In the latest push to expand access to clinical trial data, the World Health Organization has released a new position statement calling for companies to publish all research studies and suggested specific timetables for making the information available.

The move comes amid growing clamor from academics and consumer groups to press drug and device makers to release trial data. At issue is the ability for researchers to independently verify study results and, consequently, improve patient treatments that can lead to better health and lower costs.

Concerns have been heightened following various safety scandals that revealed trial data for some products was never fully published or disclosed. In recent months, regulators in the U.S. and Europe have responded by releasing new rules designed to widen access. And several drug makers, in varying degrees, have taken steps to release trial data (see here and here).

In explaining its position, the WHO notes that the failure to fully report trial data can foster misinformation, raise health care costs and distort public policy. The agency, which also published a rationale in the PLOS Medicine journal, also maintains that “it is unethical to conduct human research without publication and dissemination of the results of that research.”

Specifically, the WHO says companies should update information already provided to trial registries and submit findings for publication in peer-reviewed journals within 12 months of finishing studies. The agency also says companies should ensure there is so-called ‘open access’ publication, which refers to freely available access. Moreover, the WHO adds that results from past studies should also be disclosed.

We asked the pharmaceutical industry trade groups in the U.S. and Europe for comment and will update you with any replies. [UPDATE: A spokesman for the Pharmacetical Research & Manufacturers of America writes us that "the industry has committed to providing summary results on all trials in patients for marketed drugs and discontinued research programs." He also pointed us toward the industry principles fact sheet.]

Not surprisingly, the WHO statement was largely greeted with enthusiasm by researchers and consumer advocates. For instance, David Tovey, editor in chief of the library at the Cochrane Collaboration, a non-profit that reviews clinical trial data, and a co-founder of the AllTrials campaign that has pushed industry for greater disclosure, calls the WHO statement a “substantial step forward.”

Ilaria Passarani of BEUC, the European Consumer Organization, says this is a “landmark… Complete, accurate and easy-to-understand information about medicines is essential to empower consumers so they can choose their treatments knowingly. It is truly the only way consumers can have objective information about most of the medicines they are prescribed or purchase over the counter today.”

But some academics were more circumspect. Harlan Krumholz, a Yale University cardiologist who runs the Yale Open Data Access Project, says the WHO statement “is a great addition to the chorus and worthy of note, but not game changing.” An issue, he says, is that the WHO is “articulating an aspiration. But they might suggest a consequence to non-compliance.”

Similarly, Peter Doshi, an assistant professor of pharmaceutical health services at the University of Maryland and an associate editor at BMJ, a medical journal that has pushed for greater disclosure, says the WHO statement does not call for internal documents such as clinical study reports to be made available. And he notes it does not pressure regulators to release trial data in their possession.

“Instead, it calls for researchers to publish in peer-reviewed journals and upload results into trial registries within 24 and 12 months, respectively. While these are important goals, they only move us so far in terms of clinical trial data transparency, as both journals and registries generally only report aggregate and limited amounts and types of clinical trial data.”

In an accompanying essay in PLOS Medicine, Ben Goldacre, who co-founded the AllTrials campaign, writes that audits are needed to ensure that transparency is achieved. “Previous calls for registration were not enough to fix publication bias, and positive statements require practical implementation,” he writes.

28/04/2015

Accenture, Oracle expand Life Sciences Cloud for R&D

a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, has expanded the Accenture Life Sciences Cloud for R&D, powered by Oracle, with the addition of enhanced clinical data management capabilities. This enables life sciences companies to generate high-quality, reliable and statistically sound data from clinical trials to reduce the time, effort and cost needed to take drugs from development to market.
This latest version of the Cloud for R&D offers the Oracle Health Sciences Data Management Workbench (DMW), which includes prebuilt integrations to the Oracle Health Sciences InForm, an electronic data capture (EDC) solution to create an end-to-end clinical data collection and management platform.
With the addition of the Oracle DMW, the Cloud for R&D automates the time-consuming and resource-intensive manual processes required to load, transform and clean trial data. Trial sponsors and CROs now will be able to increase the speed and accuracy of data collection, integration and analysis; achieve greater efficiency of clinical workflow and query management; and accelerate stakeholders’ access to data across the trial lifecycle from source to submission.
The Oracle DMW provides the Cloud for R&D with several key benefits, including:
Optimized clinical data management through reusable workflows for easier global clinical trial setup and implementation
Simplified integration with disparate data providers such as CROs and central labs
Improved submissions by more quickly delivering clean, structure-ready and validated data for biostatistical analysis
More-efficient clinical operations, with advanced mechanisms facilitating operational re-use to streamline cleansing and transformations based on industry standards.
Additionally, the Oracle DMW in the Accenture Cloud for R&D is pre-integrated with the Oracle InForm EDC platform. The latest release of InForm, version 6.1, enables fully integrated capabilities including coding and IRT, rapid and reliable trial builds, and one-click, self-service deployment, including mid-study changes. As a result, life sciences organizations gain a seamless flow of data, from electronic data capture to data management to analysis.
“Being able to take advantage of new technologies for clinical data management in combination with Oracle InForm is a key factor to helping our clients bring life-improving medicines to patients faster,” said Kevin Julian, managing director of Accelerated R&D Services, Accenture Life Sciences. “This latest version of Accenture Life Sciences Cloud for R&D harnesses the highly differentiated capabilities of a pre-integrated end-to-end clinical R&D platform based on leading technology from Oracle.”
“As the industry’s only true end-to-end data management solution in a single environment, Oracle Health Sciences Data Management Workbench accelerates the speed and accuracy of clinical data integration, reconciliation, aggregation and analysis by reducing time -consuming manual processes required to load, transform and clean trial data. Accenture’s Life Sciences Cloud for R&D with Data Management Workbench is changing the way technology is developed and delivered across the life sciences industry, helping life sciences organizations provide life-improving therapies faster and at a lower cost,” said Steve Rosenberg, general manager of Oracle’s Health Sciences Global Business Unit.
Previously announced in October, the Life Sciences Cloud Coalition is a initiative, in parallel with the Accenture Life Sciences Cloud for R&D platform, building an assembly of like-minded leaders collaborating for a healthier industry in non-competitive areas. The focus of the coalition is on driving innovation in the Accenture Life Sciences Cloud to digitally enable the R&D function, speed the drug development process while improving quality and cost for the industry. Members of the coalition include Accenture, Oracle, Eisai, Pfizer, Merck, and other pharmaceutical companies.

23/04/2015

Indian IT industry is changing

BENGALURU/NEW DELHI: Wipro and HCL Technologies joined the list of Indian software companies reporting underwhelming results in a reflection of the industry's struggles with volatile currency movements and the rapid transformation in the world of information technology. With the effects of cross-currency movements counted, Wipro said revenue in the fourth quarter shrank by 1.2%.

Wipro forecast that at best top line growth would be around 1% in the April-June period with the possibility that revenue could fall by 0.5%. HCL Technologies' top line was unchanged from the previous quarter but its operating margin fell by 10.5%, sending the company's shares 3.2% lower on the National Stock Exchange.

"These earnings are a reflection of much deeper transition going on; currency can be blamed for only a part of it (the performance)," said Partha Iyengar, head of research at Gartner India. He added that the next 6-8 months could see this trend gain momentum, as top outsourcing customers get to grips with their strategies for digital businesses.

India's biggest software company Tata Consultancy Services has missed analysts' estimates for top line growth in the past three quarters, and Bengaluru-based mid-tier company Mindtree reported some recent 'softness' in demand.

Analysts are of the view that information technology companies worldwide are just about beginning to get to grips with changes that include automation of codewriting and testing, cloud computing to deliver services over the internet and data analytics.

Indeed, earlier in April, technology researcher Gartner also predicted global technology spending dropping by 1.3% this year. "This is just the phase one of the transition. For most part, Indian providers have been transactional, now they need to look at sales quality and start having different kind of sales conversations," Iyengar said.

Concerns about growth momentum

Software industry grouping Nasscom has already confirmed concerns about growth momentum in the sector and scaled down export revenue growth for this year to 12-14% from 13-15%.

Wipro has said that revenue will be in the range of $1,765 million to $1,793 million in the first quarter of 2015-16, which means that at the lower end it projects the top line could shrink. But chief executive TK Kurien said the good days lie ahead. "All I can say is that the next year will be better than this year," he said. Wipro's revenue grew by 7% in 2014-15.

Wipro recently appointed a chief operating officer in Abid Ali Neemuchwala and on Tuesday elevated chief strategy officer Rishad Premji to the board of the company in moves widely interpreted as preparations for transition — the former likely succeeding CEO Kurien and the latter following in the footsteps of his father Azim Premji as the chairman of the company eventually.

28/02/2015

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