Monthly Archives: March 2022

Recently, I received an email from an old friend in England. Tony wrote that his wifes 70th birthday was coming up, and he is asking their many friends to send cards to her in care of their son, so she would get them all at once at a surprise celebration. I sent a card across the Atlantic with many good wishes. And several weeks ago, I watched on YouTube a friends family celebration in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Although COVID has kept us apart physically, technology has brought us together.

And so, without sounding like Pollyanna, with war raging in Ukraine, gas prices growing and COVID not yet concluded, there are happy things happening, due to expanding technology.

For example, on Monday nights I have been teaching my Hopkins Odyssey courses on Zoom 19th century English Romantic poets right now. In the past two years, my course participants have come from Chicago, San Francisco, New York City, Florida and Connecticut. Many of my friends and I have been taking Smithsonian courses on Zoom.

On Wednesdays at noon, also on Zoom, my Bible Study meets with members from three Baltimore City churches participating. And thousands of people have been and still are working remotely, thus avoiding long commutes and, in some cases, formal dress.

Although, as an English teacher, I still prefer to read traditional paper books, I admire the Kindle description that author and former Baltimore Sun reporter Laura Lippman writes in The Book Thing: Says she, books could live inside devices, glowing like captured genies, desperate to get back out in the world and grant peoples wishes.

Speaking of granting wishes, I recently saw on the PBS NewsHour, a segment on 3D printed homes. Through technology, a home 1,500 square feet with three bedrooms, two bathrooms and a garage can be built in 24 hours, and the cost is much less than a traditional home.

This new project is projected to grow more than $1.5 billion in 2024. As a result, many low-income families who never thought they could own a home, will be able to.

The use of technology within a home is vast. When I asked Marshall, my tech-savvy cousin in North Carolina, to list the technical devices he and his wife use in their two homes, he first explained that before they drive to their second home on the water, three hours away, they can, through their phones, have the electricity turned on as well as the heat, whereas in the past, they had to ask a neighbor to do that.

To quote Marshall, between Jan and me, we have two iPhones, two Kindles, a desktop PC, Windows laptops, iPads, MacBook pro, printers, scanners, smart TV, Amazon Echos, etc.

With their phones, in addition to calling, texting, emailing and photographing, they do all their banking, all their purchasing, as well as start their cars, read books and maps, do research, and their list goes on.

Of course, every new invention is not a panacea, and peoples normal resistance to change is always a problem.

The one example that comes to mind is the invention of frozen foods. In The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post, writer Allison Pataki explains how resistant Marjorie Merriweather Posts second husband was as CEO of Post Cereals (women could neither hold such positions nor sit on boards in the early 1900s) when Marjorie wanted to buy Clarence Birdseyes small frozen-fish business. Fortunately for the world, Marjorie prevailed, and frozen foods, making life easier and healthier, are sold and consumed nearly everywhere in the world.

Indeed, many people still prefer to interact in person; nevertheless, using technology makes life easier and connects us in ways that never seemed possible, a definite positive among our problems today.

Lynne Agress, who teaches in the Odyssey Program of Johns Hopkins, is president of BWB-Business Writing At Its Best Inc. and author of The Feminine Irony and Working With Words in Business and Legal Writing. Her email is lynneagress@aol.com.

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Improving life and personal connections through technology | READER COMMENTARY - Baltimore Sun

Video conferencing proved its business value during the pandemic, when companies depended on the technology to provide collaboration among employees forced to work from home. Virtual reality could one day replace video as an even better means for internet-based teamwork -- but experts agree that possibility would take a decade or more to become a reality.

At this week's Enterprise Connect, a panel of industry analysts and consultants were skeptical VR would overtake video meetings in the next 10 years. So far, immersive tech has shown clear benefits in training, car manufacturing, and scientific and medical research.

Global spending on VR and augmented reality technologies will increase from $12 billion in 2020 to $73 billion in 2024, IDC predicts. The research firm expects enterprise spending to drive the growth.

VR proponents argue that immersive technology will improve online collaboration significantly by making workers feel like they're in the same place. That sense of proximity, even in a virtual world, can be powerful in building stronger relationships, OnConvergence analyst Tom Brannen said.

"[Video] can only get so immersive. It can only go so far," he said.

Microsoft and Meta, formerly Facebook, have developed products like Mesh and Horizon Workrooms, respectively, to encourage people to collaborate using VR. Nevertheless, it will take time for businesses to quantify VR's value before paying for products, said Kevin Kieller, co-founder of consulting group enableUC. His experience with VR hasn't convinced him.

"I appreciated the difference [between video and VR], but I don't know if it would have advanced a business meeting," he said. "I don't know whether I'd be able to say it helped me make more sales."

Many companies don't provide employees with smartphones, so the idea of many businesses buying VR goggles to let workers join an all-hands call is ludicrous, said TalkingPointz analyst Dave Michels.

"It's coming. It's going to be significant. It's going to be huge. It's going to be decades [from now]," Michels said, referring to VR and the metaverse, the next internet iteration dominated by 3D.

VR, and even video, will always have a limited role in collaboration, which will remain primarily a face-to-face activity, said Communications Advantage consultant Robert Lee Harris. He predicted many people would return to the office post-pandemic for the camaraderie, much like workout fans abandoned their Peloton bikes to return to gyms.

"As soon as people were able to go back to spin classes, they wanted to be back in real life," he said.

Vendors expect to reap significant profits from VR eventually. However, the panelists do not see products becoming more interconnected than today's video conferencing services.

Mike Gleason is a reporter covering unified communications and collaboration tools. He previously covered communities in the MetroWest region of Massachusetts for theMilford Daily News,Walpole Times,Sharon AdvocateandMedfield Press. He has also worked for newspapers in central Massachusetts and southwestern Vermont and served as a local editor for Patch. He can be found on Twitter at @MGleason_TT.

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Businesses have plenty of time to adopt VR technology - TechTarget

Global video game sales hit $180 billion last year which means this market is now worth more than the North American sports industry ($75 billion) and global film industry ($100 billion) combined. Given ongoing pandemic uncertainty, the spending uptick makes sense; lacking other options, gaming technology offered a much-needed escape from reality.

But is fun the only function of video games? Or do these digital systems offer a new way to approach real-world problems?

Games have come a long way since the days of Pong, Frogger and Pitfall. Gone are 4- and 16-color displays, clunky pixels and obstinate controls. Now, games offer fully realized worlds that allow players to discover new experiences, meet new people and learn new skills. Graphics in high-end games have evolved to meet or exceed real-world fidelity, while emerging technologies such as augmented and virtual reality (AR and VR) offer even more immersive adventures.

Gamer demographics have also evolved. Gamers run the gamut young, old, male, female, life-long player to relative noob theres no bar to entry. Much of this shift stems from the proliferation of different types of games. While first-person shooter (FPS) titles remain popular, theres also a massive market for real-time strategy games, role-playing games (RPGs) building and puzzle games, and massively-multiplayer online (MMO) games.

The upshot? No matter your preference and play style, theres probably a game that fits your interests. But theres also a push to move games outside the realm of digital distractions and leverage them to tackle real-world problems. And so far, games are proving to be just as versatile outside their virtual environments.

The classic 1980s movie War Games offered a terrifying glimpse of what might happen if hackers infiltrated a computer system designed to play real strategy games spoiler alert: World War III was narrowly averted by hero Matthew Broderick. However, outside of Hollywood hype, theres a substantive case to be made for the use of video games in developing advanced military strategy.

Consider Gamebreaker, an initiative of the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The Gamebreaker program is designed to discover unfair ways for opponents to play in virtual war games simulator called Command: Modern Operations. Northrop Grumman was awarded the Gamebreaker contract in May 2020. NG teams have now added more than 200 quadrillion options designed to find causal models within the game that can be exploited to gain operational advantages. This effectively mimics the dynamics of the conflict. Our adversaries are not looking to play by the rules theyre looking for any way to win. AI-driven models can help to uncover these unexpected advantages in secure computer models, in turn equipping commanders in the field with better intelligence before they engage enemies in battle.

Holographic heads-up displays (HUDs) are familiar sights in FPS and racing games. They offer critical information to players, such as how many rounds of ammunition they have left, their current level of health or how fast theyre traveling. Well-designed HUDs in games are both customizable and unobtrusive, offering exactly the data you need and nothing you dont.

As SciTechDaily notes, these HUDs are now making their way into the real world thanks to light detection and ranging (LiDAR) technologies. Using LiDAR, a research team from the University of Cambridge has created a 3D HUD that delivers ultra high-definition holographic projections of road objects, effectively creating an augmented reality for drivers. Whats more, the nature of LiDAR solutions makes it possible for them to see through objects, potentially offering a way for drivers to see vehicles or pedestrians coming at blind corners or spot road signs that are hidden by landmarks or buildings.

FPS gamers love weaponry. Every FPS game has its own unique take on weapons such as guns, rocket launchers and grenades, with these weapons getting more powerful and often more outlandish the farther players progress. One of the most popular weapon types that often makes an appearance in near-future sci-fi games is the augmented grenade launcher. Along with the ability to shoot multiple grenade types depending on the scenario, gamers can also detonate these grenades on command to achieve a specific effect.

New technology from the United States Army now offers this ability. Known as the Counter Defilade Target Engagement (CDTE)-XM25, this grenade launcher provides a leap-ahead overmatch capability that will dramatically increase lethality and range with a family of 25mm programmable airburst munitions. In practice, this makes it possible for soldiers to deliver pinpoint grenade strikes in any combat environment.

Games are also making inroads into education. Partly driven by pandemic necessity, games offer a way to engage students with concepts they may find challenging such as math or science in a way thats more familiar and fun. One of the most common approaches to this educational effort uses the massively popular game Minecraft, which sees players building virtually anything they want in a simple, block-based environment.

Now, schools are using the games Education Mode to help students construct complex shapes and solve complicated math problems. This mode features no fighting and no monsters. Instead, it conforms to natural laws and makes it possible for kids to explore the reaction between chemicals, better understand physical processes and engage with math in a way that simply isnt possible with pen and paper.

What if you could help save the world with a video game? Thats the idea behind Foldit, a crowdsourcing game that challenges players to find new ways of folding proteins. Given the complexity of protein structures and the almost innumerable potential permutations, scientists have struggled to unlock many of their secrets. Foldit tasks players with finding the most efficient way of folding proteins, which could in turn help researchers predict their shape and provide clues about how they operate in the human body. Equipped with improved protein knowledge, experts may be better equipped to treat or prevent critical illnesses all thanks to puzzle-solving gamers.

Games are fun. But theyre also functional; video gaming technology now has practical applications in everything from military strategy to heads-up displays and medical research. Bottom line? If you find something you like, start playing you could help change the world.

Are you interested in all things related to VR and AR? We are, too. Check out Northrop Grumman career opportunities to see how you can participate in this fascinating time of discovery.

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Leveling Up: Can Gaming Technology Solve Real-World Problems? - Now. Powered by Northrop Grumman.

A firewall is a online security measure to protect your computer from viruses and other malicious attacks. You can use the internet to communicate with around 4.9 billion people worldwide, according to the International Telecommunication Union, and access more knowledge than at any other time in history.

The downside is that everybody also has access to you. This includes hackers and viruses that want to steal your data, take control of your computer or even destroy it.

To stop this from happening, a firewall controls the data flowing between your computer and the internet, according to the Canadian Conference on Electrical and Computer Engineering. Think of this like a border guard checking your passport when you go on holiday. A firewall inspects data to make sure it has the right permissions. If it does, it can pass through if it doesn't, it's instantly blocked.

A firewall works at your computer's ports. When we're talking about computer networking, a port isn't the same as a jack or socket you plug your monitor into. Rather it's a virtual entry point where your computer exchanges information with other networks.

Every computer has lots of ports, each of which handles different kinds of data. For instance, according to the Internet Measurement Conference (IMC), emails often go to port 25 while webpages go to port 80 even though they both come through the same internet connection.

When a firewall checks if data can enter your network, it'll read a message that comes with it called metadata. This will list a string of numbers indicating where the data has come from (known as the source address), where it's going (the 'destination address' aka your PC) and over which port.

Whether the data has permission will all depend on a set of rules known as a protocol, which a computer's owner or an IT manager can adjust any they want, according to the journal Stanford Law Review. As well as restricting what types of files you can download onto your computer, these rules can be set to prevent you or any other particular user from uploading certain files to the internet.

Most likely, your firewall is installed as a program on your computer. But there are also hardware firewalls that plugin between your computer and internet router. However, hardware firewalls still rely on software to monitor ports. So the only real difference between firewall software and firewall hardware is that one filters data on individual computers, while the other does it for whole computer networks If you're extra concerned about your cybersecurity, you can use both software and hardware firewalls.

A video file isn't sent from YouTube to your computer as a single file. Instead, it's broken down into smaller pieces called data packets, which reassemble once you receive them, according to the website security company Cloudflare. Packet-filtering firewalls will check each data packet to make sure it has permission to pass through your network.

While this remains the most common type of firewall, it was developed in the late 1980s. Cybercriminals have become a lot more sophisticated since then. To compensate, new types of firewalls have emerged.

Stateful packet inspection firewalls don't just assess each data packet, according to the book Configuring Juniper Networks NetScreen & SSG Firewalls. It also makes sure they all come from the same network connection. Meanwhile, the way we use the internet has changed. You're much more likely to use an app than a website, which works very differently, often switching between ports. So new application-layer firewalls have to analyse the actual data, not just read the metadata.

You can read about five different types of firewall in this article by Tech Target. To learn more about Web Application Firewall (WAF), watch this informative video by website security company Cloudflare.

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Firewall: Definition, technology and facts - Livescience.com

We hear often about how businesses must drive digital change to succeed. More than ever, leaders know that to compete, they have to use technology to generate efficiencies and meet customer demands.

But its worth stating clearly that digital transformation is not about winning some technology arms race. The reason its so critical can be summed up in one word: data.

Its become a clich to say that data is at the heart of every business, but the truth is deeper. For most organizations, data is the business. Thats why data is every businesss most irreplaceable asset and data management, analysis and protection is every businesss top priority.

Click the banner below to receive exclusive cloud content when you register as an Insider.

The right data center solution is the foundation of data management, and there are plenty of options. Professional sports teams such as baseballs Los Angeles Dodgers and basketballs Golden State Warriors have found that a modern on-premises data center right in the arena where they play for championships is the best way to deliver next-level experiences to their fans.

Customer experiences are enriched by the insights gleaned from advanced analytics received in real time, like the kind Members 1st Federal Credit Union gets from its AI-powered business intelligence solution, which helps it track call center volume and tailor advisory offers to customers specific needs.

Yet none of it matters if business data isnt protected against disaster. Thats why the comprehensive business continuity plan that construction engineering firm Infrastructure and Energy Alternatives developed is so vital: The company is protected no matter what happens.

Whatever your industry, your business will go only as far as your data takes it. Take care of your data, and chances are it will take care of you.

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Data Is at the Heart of Every Technology Deployment - BizTech Magazine

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) An estimated 10 million Americans are living with a condition most commonly misdiagnosed as Parkinsons Disease called essential tremor (ET), and doctors in Rhode Island are able to help treat it with neurosurgical technology.

Rhode Island Hospital is only the second facility in New England to obtain the technology, with the first being at Brigham and Womens Hospital.

Essential tremors are described as the uncontrollable trembling of the hands, head, voice, legs or body.

While the condition isnt life-threatening, Dr. Wael Asaad tells 12 News it can severely impact a persons quality of life.

It can impact every aspect of daily living, Asaad explained. It can impact your daily ability to eat and drink, it can impact your ability to get dressed.

Asaad, a neurosurgeon with expertise in movement disorders, psychiatric disease and traumatic brain injury, said the treatment involves a Focused Ultrasound (FUS), a non-invasive treatment in which ultrasonic energy targets tissues deep within the body and treats the brain circuit responsible for the patients tremors.

Its a big helmet that fits around your head, Asaad said. You go into an MRI scanner, and we can deliver the energy from over a thousand sources in this helmet to focus it very precisely at a single spot, just a millimeter or two across.

The first device was approved by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration in 2016.

While the treatment is fairly new, Asaad expects that most people who receive it will not need to return for additional appointments.

But the disease can get worse over time, and tremors can continue to get worse, Asaad said. So, a treatment that you give at one time may not be enough to treat the tremor later on if the tremor is getting worse.

As a field, were getting better and better at knowing how to maximize a procedure to minimize the chance that theyll have to come back for another treatment later, he continued. But our hope is that for most people, this is a permanent benefit.

In addition to treating essential tremors, the Focused Ultrasound can also be used to reduce the signs and symptoms of Tremor-Dominant Parkinsons Disease.

At least five patients have received the treatment at Rhode Island Hospitals Norman Prince Neurosciences Institute since late last year, according to Asaad.

Each one of them has had a very dramatic improvement in tremors, and nobody has had any concerning side effects, Asaad said.

Alfred Pagliarini, 80, of Hope Valley, received the treatment for an essential tremor in his left hand.

So, Ive got to shift everything to my right hand, which sounds like a simple thing, until you try doing it, Pagliarini said on the day of his treatment.

Asaad said the procedure is performed while the patient is awake, so their response to treatment can be assessed in real time.

Before the treatment, Pagliarini was asked to trace a spiral shape and draw a straight line on a sheet of paper with both hands.

Mid-treatment, he was assessed and asked to repeat the task to see if his tremor was improving. He then performed the drawings a final time to once the treatment was complete.

The results in Pagliarinis case showed an improvement.

When we do deep brain stimulation for tremors and theres that moment when you turn the stimulator on and the tremor stops, its a breathtaking moment, Asaad said. Now we see that same benefit without even having to use a scalpel, a totally noninvasive procedure. It feels like magic, and the patients are kind of blown away.

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'It's like magic': Cutting-edge technology available in RI to treat essential tremors - WPRI.com

A little over a year ago, Beeples Everydays: The First 5000 Dayssold for $69.3 million, electrifying the art and auction worlds.

But while NFTs certainly made a resounding impact in that moment, Sothebys Institute educators and alumni say its more accurate to think of the sale as our eras Salon des Refussthe coalescing of an outsider movement that has been building for quite some time. In other words, understanding the history of NFTs will prove vital in navigating the fog of volatility and technical jargon of the new art of our age, and equipping enthusiasts with a clear perspective on the brave new world ahead.

Sothebys Institute of Art, the pioneers of art business education, are designing programs to prepare professionals for just that world.

The Institutessuccessful online course, Art and Technology: From AI to NFT, has sold out every season since it was first put together in 2020. Gareth Fletcher, an Institute alum, the current program director for the MA in Art Logistics, and an expert in art and technology, has assembled a required reading listfor those just beginning to explore this field.

Recently, Fletcher and three Institute alumniMargarita Kiryushkina, a Web3 and NFT advisor; Jessica Tatievski, a dealer of post-war and contemporary art with a focus on the NFT market; and Corinne Moshy, marketing director at Blockworksdiscussed what people need to know about the intersection of art and technology.

Courtesy of Sothebys Institute, Art & Technology.

Gareth Fletchers careerwhich has involved extensive research into the relationship between provenance information and the establishment of cultural and economic value for objectshas helped him identify and analyze market opportunities surrounding authenticity, ownership, and transfer inthe context of IoT, blockchains, the metaverse, and other Web3 implementations.

The increasing obsolescence of traditional art-market yardsticks and rules of thumb makes the pre-pandemic trade appear comparably procedural, and its fascinating to witness how big techs strategic pivots are now being front-run by creative communities, while the traditional banking sector is cautiously reversing their battleships, Gareth said.

Cryptocurrencies will continue to attract discussions relating to regulation across various jurisdictions, and I imagine some will be accepted by Amazon or eBay by the end of 2022. This will further increase public awareness of alternative currencies and methods of transaction, which will eventually be absorbed into payment services offered by the traditional banking sector.

Courtesy of Sothebys Institute, Art & Technology.

Art NFTs, Institute alum Corinne Moshy said, are born from a counterculture group who are into it precisely because it isnt mainstream. One doesnt have to be part of the in-crowd to gain access.

The field will continue to grow until the line between counterculture and mainstream blur, capital flows in, and eventually NFTs are just a new sect within the market. That exact trend in the art world goes back hundreds of years. This is just the latest example. Except this time, its happening on such a massive scale because the barriers to entry are incredibly lowanyone with access to WiFi can participate.

Courtesy of Sothebys Institute, Art & Technology.

Margarita Kiryushkina andJessica Tatievski,two Institute alumnae who founded Neue Project, an advisory for those interested in NFTs andWeb3, suggest that the ways NFTs and artworks in the traditional market operate are quite different.

To make it simple,Kiryushkina explained, any type of project needs a community to sustain itself. Besides community, the intention of creating or building in it plays a significant roleas does transparency and accountability to the collective invested into the project.

As of right now, the NFT market is considered the wild west, allowing artists, builders, and collectors to experiment and let their creativity become the strongest asset towards problem-solving and establishing new standards within the space,Tatievski said.

The growth and progress within the industry are incredibly exciting, Moshy added. Theres definitely an energy in working in an industry that is booming. And its not just a group of rag-tag believers, either. The worlds largest financial institutions, the most powerful governments, the oldest auction houses are involved. Watching all of these industries and players pour into the same space is fascinating.

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3 Issues That Will Determine the Future of the NFT Market, According to Sothebys Institute Experts and Alumni - artnet News