Daily Archives: May 2, 2020

These Are The Only 2 Cryptocurrencies That Beat Bitcoins ROI Today – CryptoPotato

Posted: May 2, 2020 at 7:45 pm

Traders are ecstatic as the cryptocurrency markets finally recover from the recent crash of March 12 amid the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. At that time, Bitcoin (BTC) and the altcoins shredded all the profits they have amassed since the start of the year, leaving many in bearish sentiment.

However, with the current surge, the price levels in the market have returned to the same ones in February, when Bitcoin traded above $9,200. BTC is leading the bull run, posting massive gains of up to 10.34% against the USD in the last 24 hours. At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading in the $9,000 area.

As Bitcoins increasing in its USD value, so is its dominance, which currently stands at 65.7%, suggesting that altcoins are losing grounds. Indeed, alternative cryptocurrencies are all bleeding against Bitcoin as the entire market is painted red.

While almost all altcoins are posting massive gains against the USD, they are being crushed against BTC as Bitcoin dominance continues to surge higher. In the top 100 altcoin markets, only two cryptocurrencies are trading at profits against Bitcoin in todays trading session.

Siacoin (SC) and Streamr DATAcoin (DATA) are the only two major altcoins in the market that surpassed Bitcoins RIO today. In the USD market, the bull run saw both coins trading higher at 28.96% and 48.89%, respectively. In the BTC market, SC is posting gains of 11.33% while DATA is 29.14% green.

Being the only altcoins trading at profits against Bitcoin in the market is a great feat for both Siacoin and Streamr projects.

While Siacoin offers an open-source, low-cost solution for cloud storage for users across a decentralized network of peers, Streamr is an open-source infrastructure for real-time data based on the Ethereum blockchain.

The Sia project recently announced the launch of a blockchain infrastructure designed for the Italian Banking Association (ABI). Founded in 1919, the ABI will use Sias blockchain infrastructure to enable its Spunta Banca DLT application.

Collaborating with one of Italys oldest banking associations is, no doubt, a milestone for Sia as it gives the project more exposure. By May 2020, around 55 Italian banks are expected to adopt the new SIAchain-based management process for reconciling reciprocal accounts among banks in the country.

Streamr, on the other hand, had its native currency DATAcoin (DATA) added to the worlds largest crypto exchange, Binance, for two new trading pairs. Binance announced that it had added support for DATA/USDT and DATA/BUSD trading pairs on its platform. The exchange launched an airdrop worth 3 million DATAcoin tokens ($150,000) to celebrate the addition of the new pairs.

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Bitcoin Fraudsters On The Rise Using WHO Addresses To Solicit Fake COVID-19 Donations – Coingape

Posted: at 7:45 pm

U.K based fraud detection firm, Cifas, warns investors on the skyrocketing cases of fraud involving Bitcoin payments and donations. The firm states the current program by the World Health Organization (WHO) to donate BTC directly to its wallet is one of the websites facing the highest cases of Bitcoin fraud.

According to the report, there has been an increasing case of phishing and Bitcoin-related fraud as the world adjusts to the CoronaVirus pandemic. The epidemic has seen a number of donation websites come up in a bid to fight the spread of the virus but fraudsters have taken up this opportunity to scam users off their money.

Cifas claims the WHO emailing and texting service have been cloned by fraudsters to ask for donations from unknowing citizens. Bitcoin scams boosted on the WHO plea, some asking users to send their donation to a BTC address not registered to WHOs COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund.

Furthermore, fraudsters send users a WHO-like email using the address ([emailprotected]) to make the scam look more realistic. The detection firm asked users not to send any donations to suspicious-looking addresses but only to donate on the official WHO pages.

Notwithstanding, phishing scams have also graduated to target institutions and companies using Her Majestys Revenue and Customs (HMRC) job retention scheme to scam people. In a statement released earlier in the week, HMRC urges everyone to be vigilant during this period. The statement further reads,

Companies to beware of unsolicited emails, texts or phone calls that are requesting financial details or other sensitive information and claim to come from the HMRC or similar authorities.

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Bitcoin Fraudsters On The Rise Using WHO Addresses To Solicit Fake COVID-19 Donations

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U.K based fraud detection firm, Cifas, warns investors on the skyrocketing cases of fraud involving Bitcoin payments and donations. The firm states the current program by the World Health Organization (WHO) to donate BTC directly to its wallet is one of the websites facing the highest cases of Bitcoin fraud.

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Lujan Odera

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Coingape

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PrimeXBT: Why Bitcoin traders switch to other markets – CryptoSlate

Posted: at 7:45 pm

The growth of the Bitcoin market has brought forth a new type of trader the Bitcoin, or cryptocurrency, trader. These traders thrive on high risk and big volatility, and know-how to master the new and nascent digital asset markets. However, they also have a good eye for opportunities across the board.

The Bitcoin market has also started melding with traditional ways of trading thanks to derivative trading and CFDs becoming popular among the Bitcoin community members. Now, these traders who may have found their niche in Bitcoin are happy to jump across to other traditional markets too, especially in this time of the Covid-19 pandemic. Lets find out why they consider opportunities outside the crypto trading space.

The Covid-19 impact on the traditional markets has been drastic. Stock indices have dropped substantially, the May futures for Oil have dropped to a never before seen price of zero and below, but then there is gold which is pushing new heights while certain forexes have fallen to new lows.

Strangely, after the Bitcoin fall in March, the coin has rebounded and stayed relatively stable in the range of $7,000 $9,000. Bitcoin is known for its volatility, and this is what attracts the Bitcoin investors, but they have been forced to look elsewhere.

But, being savvy crypto investors, these traders have been looking for a place where they can use their Bitcoin and digital assets to make trades within the legacy markets which do not often cross over with the cryptocurrency side of things.

It is clear why Bitcoin traders want to make this jump to traditional legacy markets as these are now the ones presenting the best trading opportunities, but it is less certain as to how they can manage this. Looking at the options, there are not too many good ones for people who have Bitcoin to make trades on traditional assets.

Most cryptocurrency exchanges such as Binance, BitMEX, and Bitfinex have almost no interest in offering their users a chance at markets other than Bitcoin, and a few altcoins. But even with altcoin offerings, there is not much attraction as these markets have more incalculable risks at a time like this.

More so, major CFD and forex brokers do not offer the kinds of leverage and options that Bitcoin traders are used to, and more than that, they usually have strict and stringent Know Your Customer procedures in order to start trading and, of course, there are basically none that offer a chance to use Bitcoin to make such trades or fund accounts which leads to the need to use wire transfers making it far less global as well.

With all that said and done, there are Bitcoin traders who have managed to cash in on the volatile, yet favorable, market conditions in the legacy market, and done so quickly, and easily, and with their Bitcoin.

PrimeXBT, a Bitcoin-based exchange offers a strong value proposition and entry into the traditional markets. The award-winning platform not only opens up the world of Bitcoin trading, but it also gives access to the worldwide market from a single, Bitcoin funded, account.

It is also quick and efficient as PrimeXBT only requires a simple signup, email confirmation, a small funding of your PrimeXBT wallet with BTC and you are ready to start trading over 50 global markets including commodities, such as Gold, Silver and Oil, Indices, Forex currencies and of course, Cryptocurrencies.

The decision to not require KYC documents also works in favor of traders who want to get trading quick as there is no wait time but it also offers enhanced privacy and data protection. Recently, there has been a spate of data leaks and hacks which have led to peoples sensitive information, like their passports and residency information leaked to the dark web, and sold off. This is why PrimeXBT respects user privacy and requires no individual information from clients.

More so, the platform not only allows for traders to use Bitcoin to fund their traditional trading, it adds high leverage that has become so popular and common in Bitcoin trading. High leveraging allows traders to make big profits by essentially allowing the trader to open positions much larger than their own capital. It is of course risky, but when markets are like they are, it is a good chance to multiply profits up to 1,000 on stock indices, forex, and commodities.

What makes PrimeXBT even more inviting is that its trading terminal is extremely user friendly, and for Bitcoin traders who want to enter into the traditional side of things, it is easy to customize the terminal and make it comfortable for what they are used to. But even more than that, there are advanced trading tools that come alongside the built-in charting software. The offering of long and short positions is vital for traders to profit when markets are dropping, while there are also hedge positions and stop-loss orders to use.

Finally, this is a scary, but exciting, time to trade and that is another reason why PrimeXBT is such a good option as they not only have bank-grade security that uses address whitelisting, two-factor authentication and Cloudflare DDoS Protection, but also offer 24/7 customer support chat and are always available on email and Telegram should things not work out.

Signup and start trading global markets in just 40 seconds with PrimeXBT. Fund your account with Bitcoin and trade from as low as $10.

Disclosure:This is a sponsored post brought to you by PrimeXBT. For more information on our rates for sponsored posts, please see ouradvertising page.

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Amid a new technology normal, gaps and gratitude for the devices that sustain us – Citizen Times

Posted: at 7:44 pm

Bill McGoun, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Published 5:37 p.m. ET May 2, 2020

Computers have made the coronavirus house arrest more tolerable for many. The lack of computers has made it even worse for some.

I am writing this column on a personal computer in the den of my Swain County home. When I complete it, I will email it to the Citizen Times. My task will have been completed without close contact with any other human being.

I have been working remotely for 20 years now, so the virus has made minimal change in my lifestyle. For many, however, it is a new way of life that may prevail after the virus is gone. For some, it puts them even further behind.

Millions of people who used to go to an office now work from home. Educational institutions all over the country have gone to virtual instruction. All of this is made possible by the ubiquity of home computers and laptops.

More: Living in broadband gaps, rural WNC families improvise to make virtual learning work

Students use a tablet device at Nesbitt Discovery Academy in this 2014 file photo.(Photo: Citizen-Times Photo)

I recall in the 1980s trying to get some work done while waiting for an airplane. I was using the first laptop, a Radio Shack word processor with a memory of 16 thousand bytes. That translates to roughly 16,000 letters or 3,000 words. I was interrupted constantly by people wondering about that strange machine on my lap.

Today, of course, laptops are everywhere. They also are a lot more powerful. The computer I use at home and the laptop I use while traveling each has 8 billion bytes of memory. Of course, they do a lot more than word processing, though this continues to be a major use for me.

There is hardly a business that has not been revolutionized by computers. In newspapers, the composing room is a thing of the past. Editors now can prepare pages for the press right at their desks. Those editors often are based in different cities or states from the one in which the newspaper is published.

A society is never the same again after an upheaval. It instead settles into a new normal. The post-coronavirus new normal will include even greater use of computer technology.

More: Boyle column: We've all got pandemic fatigue, but let's not rush the reopening

Many of those working from home will continue to do so. Such arrangements are more convenient for the employee and less expensive for both the employee and the employer. The trend toward online sales will accelerate, reducing store employment.

Virtual learning has its drawbacks; there is something to be said for interacting with an instructor who is in the same room. Still, there are some cases in which a virtual class makes sense, as in delivering specialized instruction to a remote area, or in one of those lower-division college courses that often are taught to an auditorium full of students by a graduate assistant.

There is, however, a dark cloud behind all these silver linings. Millions of families still are without access to high-speed internet. In some cases, they simply cannot afford it. In other cases, especially in rural areas and more so when signal-blocking mountains abound, the service is not available.

One in eight homes in the Asheville metropolitan area is without internet access, and many more have access that is either inconsistent or too slow for interactive uses. In the rural counties the percentage is higher. One option is creation of wi-fi hot spots. SkyWave, a Bryson City-based wireless internet provider, has set up 27 of them in Swain County.

Families can download school assignments at a hot spot, if necessary on a device provided by the school system. "Absolutely not ideal that folks are having to do their homework in their car, but that is one of the ways we're trying to be creative, said Karen Cook, technology director for Swain County Schools.

If the virus has taught us nothing else, it is the importance of internet service. The next society will be even more dependent on that service than the one we know now. The new normal should include a commitment toward universal access.

4/28/00 Bill McGoun is a former editorial writer for the Palm Beach Post who is retired and lives in Bryson City.(Photo: Ewart Ball)

This is the opinion of Bill McGoun, a contributing editor on the Citizen Times Editorial Board. He lives in Bryson City.

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Technology Will Not Save Us – The New York Times

Posted: at 7:44 pm

This article is part of the On Tech newsletter. You can sign up here to receive it weekdays.

This will sound weird coming from a professional tech writer: Technology will not end a pandemic. People will.

There has been both hype and hand-wringing about tech that turns peoples smartphones into disease sentinels. Governments, health care authorities and companies around the world are using information about where we go to help locate coronavirus hot spots or notify potentially infected people.

There are good elements of this location-tracking technology, and serious shortcomings. Mostly, though, Im concerned that citizens, companies and political leaders will fixate on this technology at the expense of more helpful but difficult policy choices.

If so, well waste money, risk lives and provide an opening for technologists to oversell what they do.

Its not all worrisome. To my surprise, the big American technology companies have been sensible and responsible about how our smartphones should track where people infected with the coronavirus have been.

But the perfect should not be the enemy of the good. Location data is likely to be a useful tool in a large pandemic-fighting toolbox.

Notice what I said. ONE tool. Technology is not magic. We need to focus more on unglamorous, human-powered tactics.

Andy Slavitt, the former director of Medicare and Medicaid in the Obama administration, wrote on Twitter that early in the pandemic he worked to see if Google and Apple would collaborate on smartphone tracking. I was looking for silver bullets, he tweeted. But I was lying to myself.

Slavitt changed his focus. He teamed up with Scott Gottlieb, a former head of the Food and Drug Administration under President Trump, to help write a pandemic-fighting proposal that emphasizes low-tech solutions.

They said the United States needed comprehensive, coordinated coronavirus testing, and tens of billions of dollars in government spending to isolate and compensate infected people to limit spread among family members. They said a couple hundred thousand people may be needed to do the laborious work to identify infected people.

Endless focus on the merits and drawbacks of technology to fight the coronavirus isnt going to solve our problems. Less technology, please, and more competent humans.

So, technology cant fix everything! But there are tech companies and tech people deploying their skills and resources in helpful ways during this pandemic.

I asked two technology leaders I trust for examples that might otherwise fly below the radar. Ill be returning to this topic again.

Roy Bahat, who invests in young tech companies with Bloomberg Beta, mentioned U.S. Digital Response. The group, organized in part by the technology executive Raylene Yung, matches local governments with volunteer technical assistance. The volunteers are helping build websites that would help small businesses request loans, coordinate meal deliveries to homebound people and create health assessment screenings and other digital government services.

Samuels also mentioned Propel, a start-up that helps people manage their food stamp assistance on their phones. The company is now working to help food stamp recipients access personal donations, keep them informed about the coronavirus and share their struggles.

And Bahat talked up the work of the technology executives Joe Wilson and Eric Ries, who are coordinating an umbrella group of companies, volunteer groups and health care providers working to supply personal protective equipment to hospitals and states.

Facebook drama: The company pushed out some of the people responsible for finding and stopping hackers. My colleagues Sheera Frenkel and Mike Isaac write that some of the affected people believe theyre being treated unfairly. Also, The Wall Street Journal traces Mark Zuckerbergs sparring with board members who felt their views were being dismissed.

Anime with a side of Marx: The Communist Youth League and other Chinese government-sanctioned groups have been flooding Bilibili, a popular online hub for animation and video games in China, with coronavirus-related conspiracy theories and nationalist messages, Bloomberg Businessweek reports.

A raccoon banker runs the Bank of Nook: In a perfect deadpan tone, The Financial Times writes about interest rate cuts by the fictional central bank in the Animal Crossing: New Horizons video game. The banks raccoon-like manager, Tom Nook apologised for any inconvenience and offered a compensatory gift of a floor mat shaped like a bell.

I think youre muted? Look at your little cat! The things we say in our work-from-home days, smushed into 45 seconds.

We want to hear from you. Tell us what you think of this newsletter and what else youd like us to explore. You can reach us at ontech@nytimes.com.

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COVID-19 and Technology: Commonly Used Terms – EFF

Posted: at 7:44 pm

New technical proposals to track, contain, and fight COVID-19 are coming out nearly every day, and the distinction between public health strategies, technical approaches, and other terms can be confusing. On this page we attempt to define and disambiguate some of the most commonly used terms. Bookmark this glossarywe intend to update it with new terms and definitions regularly.

For more information on COVID-19 and protecting your rights, as well as general information on technology, surveillance, and the pandemic, visit our collection of COVID-19-related writing.

Contact tracing: This is the long-standing public health process of identifying who an infected person may have come into contact with while they were contagious. In traditional or manual contact tracing, healthcare workers interview an infected individual to learn about their movements and people with whom they have been in close contact. Healthcare workers then reach out to the infected persons potential contacts, and may offer them help, or ask them to self-isolate and get a test, treatment, or vaccination if available.

Digital contact tracing: Some companies, governments, and others are experimenting with using smartphone apps to complement public health workers contact tracing efforts. Most implementations focus on exposure notification: notifying a user that they have been near another user whos been diagnosed positive, and getting them in contact with public health authorities. Additionally, these kinds of appswhich tend to use either location tracking or proximity trackingcan only be effective in assisting the fight against COVID-19 if there is also widespread testing and interview-based contact tracing. Even then, they might not help much. Among other concerns, any app-based or smartphone-based solution will systematically miss groups least likely to have a smartphone and most at risk of COVID-19: in the United States, that includes elderly people, low-income households, and rural communities.

Contact tracing using location tracking: Some apps propose to determine which pairs of people have been in contact with each other by collecting location data (including GPS data) for all app users, and looking for individuals who were in the same place at the same time. But location tracking is not well-suited to contact tracing of COVID-19 cases. Data from a mobile phones GPS or from cell towers is simply not accurate enough to indicate whether two people came into close physical contact (i.e. within 6 feet). But it is accurate enough to expose sensitive, individually identifiable information about a persons home, workplace, and routines.

Contact tracing using proximity tracking: Proximity tracking apps use Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) to determine whether two smartphones are close enough for their users to transmit the virus. BLE measures proximity, not location, and thus is better suited to contact tracing of COVID-19 cases than GPS or cell site location information. When two users of the app come near each other, both apps estimate their proximity using Bluetooth signal strength. If the apps estimate that they are less than approximately six feet apart for a sufficient period of time, the apps exchange identifiers. Each app logs an encounter with the others identifier. When a user of the app learns that they are infected with COVID-19, other users can be notified of their own infection risk. Many different kinds of proximity tracking apps have been built and proposed. For example, Apple and Google have announced plans for an API to allow developers to build this kind of app.

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Salon turns to dry fog technology to kill coronavirus ahead of reopening – FOX 31 Denver

Posted: at 7:44 pm

LARIMER COUNTY, Colo. (KDVR) Colorado small businesses are looking for ways to disinfect their spaces ahead of reopening in the near future.

In Larimer County, salon owner Jennifer Eichhorn says shes turning to dry fog technology to help keep her staff and clients safe.

Im willing to do anything extra I can right now, said Eichhorn.

Eichhorn was set to open the fourth location of The Screamin Peach Waxing Studio just as businesses started shutting down.

Its been extremely difficult to navigate through this, said Eichhorn.

Shes now ready to bring a small amount of staff back to the salon but wants to make sure theyre protected. She says thats why she enlisted the help of Pure Maintenance of Colorado, a company specializing in dry fog technology.

Ryan Taylor, Managing Partner with the company says it was recently learned their chemicals are effective against the novel coronavirus.

It gets in and around every crack. It gets the underside of tables, the top of tables, pushing into fabric and furniture, said Taylor.

Taylor says the chemicals used disrupt the virus, making the environment essentially uninhabitable for it. He says their process kills the virus on surfaces and also provides a level of protection for up to 90 days.

Essentially, it prevents against surface-to-person transfer. It cant protect against person-to -person transfer but we can certainly protect against surface-to-person transfer, said Taylor.

Taylor says theyve seen an increase in the number of inquiries as many small businesses are preparing to reopen in some capacity.

I do hope that sooner rather than later, this isnt a necessary thing. Theres always value in preventative maintenance, said Taylor.

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A brief history of video and technology in baseball, and how it helped teams steal signs – The Boston Globe

Posted: at 7:44 pm

It took little time to discover the potential benefits.

Ill never forget it," said Eckersley. "We could see the signs during the game. If guys got to second base, wed run down from the clubhouse and say, I think theyre using the second sign! If they didnt change the signs, they were stupid.

"But we thought we were really neat. Obviously, this has been going on for a long time.

Another Hall of Famer, Padres great Tony Gwynn, became a pied piper for the use of video as a scouting and training tool in the early 1980s. His wife recorded some of his games during a slump in early 1983, allowing him to almost immediately identify and fix a mechanical issue.

Yet while videos applications as a tool for improvement have long been evident, its use for cracking other teams codes has an equally lengthy history.

Sign-stealing has always been an accepted and legal part of baseball. For years, players have been lauded for solving opposing pitchers like a Rubiks Cube, whether by identifying how they tip their offerings, by seeing a pitchers grip from second base and relaying it to a hitter, or by identifying which sign in a catchers sequence is being used.

But there have been plenty of efforts to decipher opponents signs that have pushed the boundaries of acceptable practices: scoreboards flashing a light to indicate a pitch type, bullpen members holding binoculars and signaling to hitters, or personnel in the bleachers doing the same. Just as video revolutionized how players and teams trained and prepared, it likewise offered revolutionary potential for espionage.

According to former Red Sox general manager Dan Duquette, the team spoke to the American League in 1995 and 1999 about suspicions that the Cleveland Indians were using a camera in center field ostensibly there for scouting purposes to steal signs.

Opponents believed that someone who was watching the feed whistled to indicate to hitters when fastballs were coming. The Sox brought their concerns to an umpiring crew in September 1999 and the Indians were told to cover the camera with a towel. The league preferred self-policing to an intervention.

Over time, technology became more sophisticated and more accessible. By the 1990s, several teams started using the Baseball Analysis and Tracking System (BATS) for pitch-location and spray-chart data. By the early 2000s, BATS (whose parent company, Sydex Sports, declined interview requests for this story) incorporated video, creating large and easily sorted libraries that allowed players to become ever more precise and efficient in their ability to review at-bats in games.

BATS is now a staple of nearly all big league clubhouses; on its website, Sydex claims that 29 big league teams use it. The net result of such systems is that in the nearly four decades since Gwynn made video a key training tool, nearly all big leaguers are now well-versed in its use. The in-game examination of video has gone from rare to nearly universal.

Video usage ramps up

The BATS system offers four angles from which to analyze at-bats: a front view, two side views (one useful for lefties, one for righties), and a fourth that can vary from park to park. In his 10 years in the big leagues, Red Sox first baseman Mitch Moreland has seen reliance on it grow.

Nowadays I think its a lot more prominent in the way guys approach the game how they study their swing not just daily but at-bat by at-bat to see how theyre approaching different pitches, if theyre making the move they want to make, whatever theyre working on, said Moreland. The game is so much more analytical than it was and more technical than it was when I first came up.

A few years ago, a member of the Red Sox coaching staff lamented that players would conclude a disappointing at-bat and run straight to the computer to look at their swings and pitch selection. But in 2018, with a managerial change from John Farrell to Alex Cora, the turnover of the coaching staff, and the arrival of hitting sage J.D. Martinez one of the most precise technicians in the game the teams embrace of video jumped to new levels.

Cora was renowned for his ability to identify tipped pitches during his playing career, and was part of sign-stealing as a coach with the Astros in 2017. He arrived in Boston preaching attentiveness to details, including opportunities to pick up on teams giving away pitches. Much of that effort was to be done from the field he wanted players in the dugout and on the bases to be locked in on what an opposing pitcher was doing but also included a heavy video element.

Cora, his coaches, and the advance scouting team of Steve Langone and J.T. Watkins scoured video for any tells by opposing pitchers. They also examined catcher sign sequences with runners on base to figure out which sign typically was being used to call a pitch.

Prior to every game, their hitters met to go over scouting reports digesting information not just about pitch mixes, count tendencies, and the shape of pitches, but also, according to multiple major league sources, information about tipping, sign sequences, and signals from runners on second to hitters. All of that was perfectly legal.

On top of that, hitters became more active in their use of video. Martinez had video taken of all of his swings during batting practice. Other players soon followed. Banter among Red Sox players in 2018 about their swings was constant and a frequent source of in-game attention via the BATS system, thus bringing them into proximity with another game-changing technological innovation: replay.

MLB approved the use of replay to review disputed calls for the 2014 season. It started using the Hawk-Eye system, with up to 12 synchronized live feeds of games to show every play from a variety of angles. The feeds were received in a New York hub, which umpires could then examine when asked to rule on a managerial challenge.

Yet rather than centralizing replay decisions and leaving them under the oversight of umpiring crews, MLB elected to leave the challenge in the hands of teams. Teams were given access to the same live feeds available in New York, including several angles not being used for the broadcast.

Those live feeds were examined by a team staffer in the clubhouse in the case of the Red Sox in recent years, it was Watkins typically at a station adjacent to the BATS setup. Whereas BATS doesnt make video available until at least the conclusion of an at-bat, replay made a dozen video feeds available in real time, including on occasion a center-field view that captured the catchers signals.

MLBs report on the Red Sox acknowledged that the Hawk-Eye system does not always feature a center-field view, and two major league sources estimated that the Red Sox had such a view about 30 percent of the time in 2018.

Wading into the gray area

Since the introduction of replay, MLB has prohibited the use of that electronic equipment to steal signs or convey information, though its report on the Sox noted that prior to 2018, many teams didnt see that prohibition as applying to players and staff in the replay room to identify sign sequences.

But in September 2017, MLB fined the Red Sox for communicating sign-sequence information to their dugout via a smartwatch and the Yankees for a pre-2017 use of a dugout phone to get sign-sequence information.

MLB tried to clarify some of the gray area that had long existed surrounding the role of video in sign sequencing. In September 2017, it issued a memo warning teams that they faced more significant penalties (including the loss of draft picks) for further violations. In March 2018, MLB issued another memo to teams stating unequivocally that using live replay feeds to decode signs and sign sequences was illegal.

Still, the replay screen typically remained just a few steps from the dugout, and people in the game whod figured out how to steal signs and sign sequences by using it remained there as well. Their job descriptions included doing just that for scouting purposes.

Meanwhile, foot traffic around the area (for the Red Sox at Fenway Park, it was the batting cage just behind the dugout) remained high, at least in part because of the widespread use of BATS for in-game purposes.

That proximity likely played a part in the rules violations by the Red Sox in 2018. Players were in the batting cage area where Watkins monitored the game. When he had a Hawk-Eye feed from center field, Watkins could discern whether an opposing team was using the same sign-sequence information that it had in a previous game.

Players cared about the games details, and wanted to know what they could pick up when on the field. Its easy to envision a player, during a trip to review his swing on the BATS system, asking Watkins what sign in a sequence was being used to call pitches. If that happened, the pressure on Watkins to offer accurate information rather than doubling down on pregame information he now knew to be wrong would be enormous.

Watkins was placed in a very difficult position by virtue of his dual role as the person responsible for decoding signs pregame and as the person responsible for operating the Red Sox replay system (a structure, as I have previously noted, that was not uncommon within MLB Clubs), MLB commissioner Rob Manfred noted in his report.

Watkins admitted that because he watched the game feeds during the entire game, he was able to determine during the game when the sign sequences he provided to players prior to the game were wrong. Thus, he was placed in the difficult position of often knowing what the correct sequences were but being prohibited by rule from assisting the players by providing the correct information.

"While this does not excuse or justify his conduct, I do believe that it created a situation in which he felt pressure as the Clubs primary expert on decoding sign sequences to relay information that was consistent with what he naturally observed on the in-game video.

Violations inevitable?

Some believe that the lines of demarcation between what was and was not acceptable were blurry. After all, given that the BATS system features a front view, its possible for players to pick up sign and sign-sequence information during reviews of in-game at-bats. A major league coach not affiliated with the Red Sox noted that just in reviewing at-bats via the BATS system, coaches and players sometimes pick up on how a team is delivering its signs even without trying to do so.

If players notice a change in the sign sequences from their pregame reports, are they supposed to ignore it? Are they supposed to withhold such information from their teammates? What about an advance scout who happens to be the in-game replay coordinator?

Thats what the rules require, yet MLB didnt consistently monitor compliance with those replay rules until the 2018 postseason. In the meantime, its hard to imagine people ignoring information that they knew to be accurate. Perhaps that explains why the publication of the findings on the 2018 Red Sox hasnt inspired the same public outcry that occurred in the wake of those about the 2017 Astros.

Nonetheless, while some members of other organizations consider the Red Sox violations relatively minor, at least one coach whose team played them in 2018 noted his concern.

Its taking a live game feed and using it to affect a live game, he said. Thats not trivial to me. The punishment for that should be strong. There should be some fear.

At least during the 2018 season, there wasnt. Members of the baseball industry cited their belief that the use of live feeds to steal sign sequences had become widespread, if not ubiquitous.

In that environment, some viewed the prohibition on using the replay feed to steal sign sequences as the equivalent of driving 65 miles per hour in a 55-m.p.h. zone with no police on the road. Violations were bound to happen. Just as certain, in an era of player movement, violations were bound to be discovered.

While MLB did a poor job of policing its regulations until the 2018 postseason, it nonetheless had established the need to punish transgressions should they be discovered. With the release of MLBs report on the Red Sox following a months-long investigation, the consequences of such behavior have now become a bit clearer, as baseball tries to offer moral clarity to a video era nearly 40 years in the making.

Alex Speier can be reached at alex.speier@globe.com. Follow him on twitter at @alexspeier.

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How South Korea has used tech to successfully contain COVID-19 – Business Insider – Business Insider

Posted: at 7:44 pm

In Seoul, South Korea, much of daily life has returned to normal despite the coronavirus pandemic restaurants, shopping malls, and parks have been filled in recent weeks as the South Korean government started winding down social distancing measures.

It's one of the first countries in the world to bring a major COVID-19 outbreak under control. Cases in South Korea peaked at 909 on Feb. 28 and have gradually diminished since, and the current death toll from coronavirus is 236, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The country has controlled COVID-19 by rapidly scaling up testing as well as relying on other high-tech solutions: A government app tracks the location of all new visitors to the country; people who violate quarantine have to wear a location-tracking bracelet; "smart city" tech is being deployed to bolster contact tracing networks.

"We are in a lengthy tug of war with the coronavirus," Health Minister Park Neung-hoo told Reuters in April, adding that such measures may need to remain in place for months or years.

The success of Asia's fourth-largest economy could serve as a lesson to other countries, like the US. While there are clear differences between the two nations for one, South Korea's single-payer healthcare system makes testing and treatment free for all citizens the US is still in the process of scaling up testing and exploring how best to deploy contact tracing networks on a state-by-state basis.

Here's a look at some of the cutting-edge technology being used to fight COVID-19 in South Korea.

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AI proven to be invaluable technology during pandemic – Khaleej Times

Posted: at 7:44 pm

Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies have proven to be a key factor in helping residents and businesses across the UAE adapt to the new reality of functioning during a pandemic, with experts noting that the rate of adoption of the technology will only accelerate in the coming years.

Jackson Liu, head of the Middle East, North Africa and Europe region at BIGO Technology, told Khaleej Times that AI has been applied widely across the UAE during the Covid-19 outbreak to enhance connectivity such as with chatbots to improve customer service, as well as increasing the efficiency and intelligence of video conferencing platforms and more.

"We believe that AI-driven digital connectivity is not only key to the current situation of social distancing, but will also redefine any economic landscape due to its applications across a variety of sectors and industries," he said. "We are, as a result, constantly innovating our social networking products and AI-driven capabilities to ensure that we will be part of the digital transformation narrative of the UAE and the region."

The UAE's emerging workforce is relatively young and are digital natives, he pointed out. This makes them extremely accepting of how a digital economy and lifestyle can create value for them. "We also see that the UAE is weaving digital and smart technologies into their national fabric. This combined with the digital-first nature of the emerging workforce will certainly maximize the potential of the government and companies which in turn will improve productivity and efficiency, and contribute to achieving the smart city vision of the future."

Jeroen Schlosser, managing director at Equinix MENA, explained that there are a number of areas where AI is already helping to advance positive outcomes in the current pandemic such as disease surveillance and tracking hotspots; detecting infections in travellers and high-risk populations; speeding up diagnoses with automated image analysis; and accelerating drug discovery and vaccine development.

While data sharing may have opened up quite a bit for the Covid-19 outbreak, it is typically a challenge in industries like health and pharma where data is often collected and stored in different places and considered to be highly sensitive, he noted.

"For participants in digital health ecosystems such as providers, insurers, governments, researchers and more to share patient information safely and compliantly, they need an interconnected distributed data architecture. After all, only secure exchange of health data grows will pave the way for medical breakthroughs," he said.

Highlighting how the UAE is accelerating as a digital society, Schlosser said that businesses integrate digital technologies such as AI, machine learning (ML) and the Internet of Things (IoT) to capture data in real-time and generate the insights needed for optimal product and service delivery. "From remote working to online education, from access Over the Top (OTT) streaming services to ordering online groceries, consumers are now seeing AI in action."

He also noted that AI algorithms are an integral part of Smart City initiatives. Using AI and ML, time-consuming bureaucratic processes could be eradicated, interactions between government departments could be improved, and new streams of revenue can be tapped into.

"Smart cities are highly complex and highly interconnected," he said. "A truly smart city requires digital infrastructures that can physically link dispersed sensors, devices and machines that make up public systems, services and experiences, so they can exchange information in real time. It is therefore important for organisations and businesses to ensure there is the digital infrastructure in place to cope with this complex and diverse web of applications, data, content, clouds, networks and people.

rohma@khaleejtimes.com

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