Daily Archives: August 8, 2017

TECHNOLOGY has become an integral part of our lives in the last decade thanks to the booming technology sector's contribution in the rapid development of new technology. Some lament that the information technology (IT) industry has become oversaturated, but the truth is, technology is constantly growing.

According to a report commissioned by Engine Advocacy, a non-profit group advocating for public policies that encourage the growth of technology start-ups in California, job growth in the sector is beating the rest of US economy by three-to-one.

This is supported by a study by the Monster Employment Index (MEI) Malaysia, saying online hiring for information technology, telecommunica-tions, and other IT-based business processes increased by 12% in April this year from last year.

The Head of SEGi University's School of Information Technology, Haw Wai Yee echoes a similar sentiment, adding that SEGi University & Colleges's 40 years of academic excellence knows what it takes to produce competent, work-ready graduates to meet the needs and demands of industry.

"Programmes offered by SEGi are meant to ensure students possess necessary skills to design, develop and deliver technology or software in their future jobs," says Haw.

For example, students who are pursuing the Bachelor of Information Technology (Hons) can choose from three specialisations, which are Business Systems Design, Software Engineering, and Computer Networks. The first two specialisations are developed in collaboration with their university partner from Abertay University in UK.

Students can choose from a wide variety of IT programmes at SEGi from Certificate in Information Technology, Diploma in Information Technology, Diploma in Computer Studies, to Executive Diploma in Information Technology.

SEGi stays true to their tagline "The Best in You, Made Possible", and the importance in giving an equal opportunity to everyone to pursue tertiary education, regardless of their gender or background.

For more details, visit http://www.segi.edu.my/en/programmes/technology-innovation/

More:

Keeping up with technology - The Sun Daily

The NAND landscape. Apple (AAPL) has constantly been suing Samsung (OTC:SSNLF), the largest producer of NAND memory in the world. And Apple also is a customer of Samsung for NAND. Apple has also been a customer of Toshiba (OTCPK:TOSBF), which can't accomplish its spin off of its memory unit and is in full on litigation with its joint venture partner Western Digital (WDC). The future of Toshiba's Fab 6 which would make the next generation of memory is entirely unclear. And then there is SKHynix (OTC:HXSCF) which is only now ramping to a 48 layer 3DNAND while its competitors are all in full production with 64 layer product.

And finally there is Micron Technology (MU) trading at a paltry 5x forward, and 12x trailing, PE. Micron has the most dense 3D memory chip available which gives it a cost advantage and should give customers concerned about critical real estate, like the inside of a smartphone, a space advantage.

So what is Apple to do? Right now things in the Micron part of the memory market should look invitingly calm if you are a massive consumer like Apple. They have no IP lawsuits with you. They aren't in litigation with a JV partner. And they are a leader, at present, in terms of technology.

Apple should consider:

Tim and Donald discussing tax on repatriation of foreign cash?

Why should Apple bother? Many of us learned about Micron from articles here by the great Russ Fischer. Russ wrote in 2013 that Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) should acquire Micron. I wrote a rejoinder in November 2013 that perhaps Apple should acquire Micron. So far we are both wrong. (Be charitable. Call one of us early.) After making many millions of dollars for faithful Seeking Alpha readers, Russ suffered a major stroke. He is recovering and I hope I don't set him back to say that I still think Apple is the more logical buyer. Who knows? Maybe one day one of us could be correct.

Russ was great at boiling complicated stuff down so us mere mortals could understand it. Let me try to channel my muse here.

First, pretend you are buying an iPhone. Go to the Apple store and see that an upgrade from 128GB of NAND on an iPhone 7 is priced at $100. Next, wander over to inSpectrum to see what Apple might be paying to fulfill your upgrade. Scroll on down to the 128Gb chips and multiply by 8 to get 128GB for your upgrade. On August 6 as I was writing this, the spot price for the 128Gb TLC chip was $4.70. And so 8 of these would cost $37.60. Of course Apple doesn't pay spot and presumably they get a pretty sweet contract price. They also are presumably still buying whole wafers and are sawing them down, testing them, and packaging themselves achieving an even better cost. But let's just call it a $62 margin on your $100 upgrade to keep the math simpler. This is way down from a 92% margin Apple was getting on a 16GB upgrade when I wrote my November 2013 article. Maybe IDTT (It's Different This Time)?

Now humor Toni Sacconaghi of Bernstein who has just written that he thinks Apple will sell 251,069,000 iPhones in 2018. Gee, lets assume that there is a memory shortage and Apple is only able to get enough memory for a base model phone (128GB in the case of the iPhone 7 on the Apple store site linked above). OK maybe they scrounge up enough NAND for a few upgrades but 100 million upgrades are foregone since Apple's Tim Cook (Apple CEO and supply chain czar) is margin sensitive. Hmmm, 100 million phones that don't generate a $62 margin on this memory upgrade. Why that would be $6.2 billion in foregone gross profit! And if you rattle down through Toni's model, this might mean a decrease in Apple's earnings per share of around 50 cents. And then multiplying by a 17.79x PE according to Google finance, etc. etc.

Conclusions: There are lots of other reasons, besides the iPhone memory upgrade example, for Apple to cozy up to Micron. Toni Sacconaghi also thinks Apple will sell 39.6 million iPads, 19 million MACs, and 14.4 million watches in 2018. All of these consume NAND. They also consume Micron's primary product line of DRAM.

Beyond NAND and DRAM Micron could help Apple's ambitions with new memory types and artificial intelligence. The Micron/Intel jointly developed 3DXpoint memory comes to mind with regard to new memory. I would steer readers to Stephen Breezy's wonderful first article on SA "The iPhone 5 Technology Rabbit Hole." He was writing about phase change memory and the days of run time life it could give an iPhone. Of course it didn't happen in the iPhone 5 and hasn't appeared in subsequent models. But PCM is at the heart of 3DXpoint. A Micron controlled, or buddied up to, by Apple might yet see such an implementation.

On the AI side, one needs look no further than Micron's supply of advanced DRAM to Nvidia (NVDA) for its GPU's.

Naysayers will point out that Apple hasn't bought anything larger than its Beats headphone company. They should. Naysayers will suggest that it wouldn't work for Apple to sell memory that it doesn't need to competitors. Nonsense! This is what Samsung does every day of the week, including to a competitor named Apple.

Russ Fischer is doing a little better. He isn't hunched over a computer reading Seeking Alpha or comments to articles but we make sure he hears those of interest. When I last spoke with him, he was scheming about buying a Ford truck, racing watercraft with his son again, and journeying to Seattle. I can't wait to see him turn his nurses into millionaires with some of his trading ideas. Nice to see that a fellow going through what he is, and what he has gone through, is still developing a bucket list.

Disclosure: I am/we are long MU, INTC.

I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

Editor's Note: This article discusses one or more securities that do not trade on a major U.S. exchange. Please be aware of the risks associated with these stocks.

View post:

Apple Needs Micron Technology - Seeking Alpha

Photo ops of SoftBank Chief Executive Masayoshi Son sometimes show him chatting happily with his company's humanoid robot, the childlike Pepper, or grinning as President Donald Trump heaps praise on him for creating American jobs.

It's clear Son, Japan's richest person, stands out in Japan Inc.

He is no "salaryman" president, those typical executives who rise gradually and quietly through the ranks, Japan-style, in a corporate culture that frowns upon mavericks and tends to squelch self-made ventures.

Since founding SoftBank in 1981, Son, a Japanese of Korean ancestry who graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, has won both criticism and accolades as a daring investor who has gathered partners in diverse technology sectors from around the world.

Sometimes those adventures cost him. But often, they have paid off.

SoftBank Group Corp. reported Monday a 98 percent drop in its April-June profit at 5.5 billion yen ($50 million) on losses stemming from investments in the Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba.

Quarterly sales rose 3 percent to 2.19 trillion yen ($20 billion), while the Tokyo-based company's operating profit, which highlights core operations, logged a 50 percent increase year-on-year as its U.S. mobile carrier Sprint, previously a drain on the bottom line, boosted profitability.

The first telecoms carrier to offer the iPhone in Japan, SoftBank has bought British semiconductor company ARM. Its acquisition of U.S. robotics pioneer Boston Dynamics is awaiting regulatory approval. Recently, it has announced it will invest in Encored, a U.S. company specializing in IoT technology in the energy sector.

Son believes artificial intelligence combined with data gathered by billions of sensors will benefit people more than the 19th Century Industrial Revolution, helping to treat cancer, deliver accident-free driving and grow safer food.

Son also has money to invest: a private fund he set up last year for global investments in the technology sector, called the Vision Fund, with the potential to grow to as much as $100 billion. Trump has praised him for promising to invest $50 billion in U.S. startups to create 50,000 jobs.

Son stressed at a news conference Monday that his company was neither an old-style Japanese "zaibatsu," a business conglomerate with roots dating to the 19th century Meiji Era, nor a venture capital outfit pursuing a quick payback.

SoftBank tries to influence strategy in the businesses it invests in, without exerting outright control or overhauling their management, he said, instead collaborating on a shared vision of what he called the "information revolution."

"We don't try to stamp our color on our group companies," he said. "We feel a brand should be free."

Son's spectacular rags-to-riches story, making one big acquisition after another including an approximately 40 percent stake in Yahoo in the 1990s, has left many skeptical over what appears to be a risky way to run a business, said Satoru Kikuchi, a senior analyst at SMBC Nikko Securities Co.

But as he added stakes in one technology powerhouse after the other, names like Microsoft Corp., Novell, Cisco Systems, Ziff-Davis and Comdex, Son has shifted gears when necessary, adjusting his portfolio and often emerging a winner and winning trust from key investors, Kikuchi said.

"His goal is to become the No. 1 company in the world through expanding in the technology area," he said. "He has the ability to gather money and information. He can act, and he can make decisions."

In a recent, nearly three-hour presentation in Tokyo, Son presented some of the ventures he is partnering with, including OneWeb, whose founder and chairman Greg Wyler wants to use satellites instead of underground cables to provide affordable internet access for everyone.

He showed off Spot, a four-legged robot that can climb steps and dance. ARM's chips are found in nearly all smartphones and wearables, he noted. Data gathered from such omnipresent sensors provide far more comprehensive data than what can be gathered through mobile phones or computers, Son said.

"Those who rule chips will rule the entire world. Those who rule data will rule the entire world." Son said. "That's what people of the future will say."

SoftBank also runs a solar power business, which Son plunged into with fervor after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster in northeastern Japan. His business empire also includes financial-technology, ride-booking services and a baseball team, the Softbank Hawks.

Takenobu Miki, who worked closely with Son in the late 1990s and early 2000s, says Son excels in bringing together partners whom he thinks will be instrumental in the future.

Big Japanese companies often hoard resources like money, facilities and employees. Son doesn't, says Miki, who now has his own business, Japan Flagship Project Co., which provides consulting and project management, among other services.

He says those who criticize Son for chasing quick bucks misjudge him.

"What you don't want is an unprofitable company," said Miki. "And he has a passion, a dream."

Follow Yuri Kageyama on Twitter at https://twitter.com/yurikageyama

Her work can be found at https://www.apnews.com/search/yuri%20kageyama

Read more from the original source:

SoftBank adding technology ambitions, with ARM, robotics - ABC News

New DNA technology has made it possible for another victim of the 9/11 terrorist attacks to be identified nearly 16 years on.

The victim, a male whose name is being withheld at the request of his family, is the 1,641st person to be identified in the attacks that killed 2,753 people in total. The last victim was identified in March 2015.

The remains were discovered by the New York Citys Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, which has been retesting DNA recovered during cleanup efforts in 2001 this year. The medical examiner was previously limited by technology in its ability to test the samples.

There are 1,112 people who havent been identified after they died the World Trade Center was hit by a plane and collapsed. Families of those individuals have had no choice but to wait and hope that a discovery might be made so that they can bury their loved ones, and attempt to find some closure more than a decade and a half after the devastating attacks.

During that time, DNA technology has advanced alongside the multi-million dollar effort to try and connect 21,900 found pieces of remains to the lives they represent.

The efforts havent been simple. There were very few full bodies recovered following the fiery crash of the towers, and the impact of various environmental factors made the bits of remains difficult to analyze. Those include high heat from the jet fuel, bacteria, and the chemicals involved in the explosion and collapse.

The researchers have recently started to use a method that pulverizes some of the remains before testing the sample against DNA samples provided by family of the lost victims. Most of the new testing has pointed toward already-identified victims of the terror attacks.

Some of the samples have been tested 10 or more times as new technologies have become available for testing.

Read the rest here:

Victim of 9/11 identified after 16 years using new DNA technology - The Independent

Designers should rethink the high-tech look of gadgets according to Nendo founder Oki Sato, who has also called most of today's smart devices "useless".

The prolific Japanese-Canadian designer said that contemporary gadgets were designed to "look like technology", when they should instead blend in with home interiors or the environment they belong in.

He said that as well as being less distracting on the eye, this approach would help to reach potential consumers who are currently alienated by technology.

"I think the technology shouldn't look like technology; it should look like something in your grandmother's room, and it should blend into everyday life," Sato told Dezeen. "It shouldn't distract you, and it should be linked with your feelings and your emotions."

"It's important that it doesn't look high-tech that scares people sometimes," he continued. "When I design things that use technology, I try to think if my grandmother can use it. I think it's very important that she doesn't get scared."

Sato is known for working on roughly 400 projects at a time; however, he has so far resisted designing gadgets or incorporating internet-of-things (IoT) technology into his products.

He said he was sceptical about such smart devices, because in the absence of electricity or Wi-Fi, they could be rendered useless.

"I feel that more than 99 per cent of these things are useless in a way," said Sato. "You have these super-high-tech toilets, for instance, which warm your butt, which flush, which create music, which do everything for you, but then you notice that all these Japanese guys come to America or Europe where the toilets do nothing for you and they get afraid of it."

"It's kind of strange isn't it? You lose your smartphone and you can't even wash your butt anymore!"

The rise of the IoT, which sees ordinary household objects turned into networked devices that speak to each other via the internet, has already spawned connected kettles, smart doorbells and a toothbrush that tracks your oral hygiene habits.

Established industrial designers have turned their attention to networked technology in recent years, including Philippe Starck, who created voice-controlled smart radiator valves for Netatmo, and Barber and Osgerby, who produced the Beeline connected bike compass through their creative consultancy MAP, while San Francisco-based Yves Behar has made such devices his specialty.

Diverse brands are also dabbling with the IoT from IKEA with its Tradfri smart lighting to Herman Miller with its Live OS office furniture.

However, Sato has stayed mostly analogue in his output, and also said he is wary about how much technology is used in the design process.

"Technology is good, of course, but it's kind of dangerous in a way," Sato said. "At the moment we have eight 3D printers in our studio working 24 hours a day, and if we lose electricity we can't design things any more. In the end the sketchbook works the best."

"I think we really need to find a balance between technology and things that do not use any electricity or have anything to do with the internet."

Sato spoke to Dezeen at the opening of Nendo's Invisible Outlines exhibition, which provided a calming white sanctuary for the harried visitors of Milan design week earlier this year.

He founded Nendo 15 years ago after graduating from Japan's Waseda University with a masters in architecture. The studio is best known for its furniture and product design, which has ranged from tangled tables for Cappellini to a construction-inspired rocking horse for Kartell.

Sato joins Rem Koolhaas in expressing concern about the trend towards ubiquitous networked devices. Koolhaas criticised the lack of privacy protection, while British motoring group The AA have picked up on the devices' potential vulnerability to hackers.

Sato was placed first in the list of designers in the inaugural Dezeen Hot List, our guide to the most newsworthy forces in global design.

Subscribe to our newsletters

View post:

"Technology should look like something in your grandmother's room" says Oki Sato - Dezeen

SAN ANTONIO - San Antonio Police are investigating a shooting on the NW Side Monday afternoon.

The shooting took place around 1:30 p.m. near the San Antonio Technology Center on the 6400 block of Magic Drive.

Police said that they found two gunshot victims when they reached the scene. Witnesses said they saw a silver vehicle with multiple suspects fleeing the scene.

"The victims in this case one (is a) black male, (the other a) Caucasian male. (Their) ages are unknown. One of the victims was struck twice," said Officer Doug Greene, a spokesperson for SAPD.

One of the victims was also reported to be very uncooperative with EMS and Police personnel.

The two victims were taken to University Hospital in serious condition. Homicide investigating what turns out to be a very large crime scene.

Neighbors in the area also say crime is on going. SAPD calls for service over the last 6 months, show several reported disturbances, thefts and burglaries at Lafayette Place.

The apartment complex is just down the street from where the shooting happened.

Similar calls were also made to the Country Club Village Apartments on the 3500 block of Magic Drive.

"I've had my car broken into just last week," said Oscar Alaniz, a resident.

News 4 San Antonio also checked on calls for the business next to the parking lot where the shooting took place.

In the last 6 months, police have responded to numerous burglary alarms and 911 hang ups.

However, despite routine patrols, neighbors in the area say they hope for more security.

"More officers and maybe even more (lights,)" added Alaniz.

No word on why the victims were in the area. No weapons were recovered at the scene.

So far, no arrests have been made.

Read more:

Police looking for multiple suspects following Northwest Side shooting - WOAI

Sioux Falls, S.D. - Traffic in Sioux Falls is a concern for many drivers, but advancements in technology are here to help. About 30 thousand people travel down Minnesota every day. Newer adaptive traffic signals technology is designed to cut back on delays, wait times, and even accidents.

Its considering all those factors and trying to make the best decision on the fly for all of the intersections, Principle Traffic Engineer, Heath Hoftiezer said.

Adaptive traffic signals are relatively new to Sioux Falls. They look out for drivers, hoping to make their trips around town a bit faster and safer.

If it sees a big gap in traffic and it sees traffic on the side street it will do a quick determination on if it can serve the traffic on the side street to get them through, Hoftiezer said.

Starting next Wednesday, Minnesota Avenue drivers may notice a change on their daily commutes, thanks to the new technology known as "In-sync.

Pay attention to the traffic signals. You know make sure what its showing to you because it might not necessarily be what you are used to in the past, Hoftiezer said.

Back in 2014, the city of Sioux Falls installed this same system at 10 intersections along 26th street and saw a big impact on traffic flow.

We saw an 8 percent reduction on travel times in the corridor which corresponded to 164 hours of delay reduction on a daily basis for the corridor and weve seen a 24 percent decrease in the number of stops on the corridor, Hoftiezer said.

Businesses along 26th believe the adaptive traffic signals are definitely having an impact.

It seems like the traffic does get through the intersection faster. You dont see two cars waiting at one light and 20 at the other. Its a lot more balanced from both sides and usually you dont see that in other places in Sioux Falls, Lewis Employee, David Ferrier said.

Hoftiezer thinks the technology is here to stay.

It is something I would envision in the future. At least two thirds of the signals eventually will have this technology in them, Hoftiezer said.

Hoftiezer said there was a 21 percent decrease in the amount of crashes after the adaptive traffic signal technology was installed. He said the technology can cut down wait times during heavy traffic from 2 minutes to 90 seconds. The new signals are going up on Minnesota Avenue between 18th street and the I-229 interchange. The department of engineering will also install this technology on 41st street from Marion to Norton.

Here is the original post:

Newer traffic technology designed to cut back on wait time and accidents - KSFY