Finding Dog

 

Blockchain Technology

A blockchain is a distributed database that is shared among the nodes of a computer network. As a database, a blockchain stores information electronically in digital format. Blockchains are best known for their crucial role in cryptocurrency systems, such as Bitcoin, for maintaining a secure and decentralized record of transactions. The innovation with a blockchain is that it guarantees the fidelity and security of a record of data and generates trust without the need for a trusted third party.

One key difference between a typical database and a blockchain is how the data is structured. A blockchain collects information together in groups, known as blocks, that hold sets of information. Blocks have certain storage capacities and, when filled, are closed and linked to the previously filled block, forming a chain of data known as the blockchain. All new information that follows that freshly added block is compiled into a newly formed block that will then also be added to the chain once filled.

A database usually structures its data into tables, whereas a blockchain, like its name implies, structures its data into chunks (blocks) that are strung together. This data structure inherently makes an irreversible time line of data when implemented in a decentralized nature. When a block is filled, it is set in stone and becomes a part of this time line. Each block in the chain is given an exact time stamp when it is added to the chain.

The goal of blockchain is to allow digital information to be recorded and distributed, but not edited. In this way, a blockchain is the foundation for immutable ledgers, or records of transactions that cannot be altered, deleted, or destroyed. This is why blockchains are also known as a distributed ledger technology (DLT).  TO READ MORE ABOUT THIS TECNOLOGY, CLICK HERE...

Fireplace

Jay Walking Segments

 

Angry

Being A Full Stack Developer

Full stack developers are the Swiss army knives of the development world. As masters of multiple programming languages, these savvy professionals are capable of transitioning seamlessly from one development environment to the next. 

A boundless sense of curiosity drives full stack developers — it’s not enough to know that something works, they need to understand the how and why behind each functionality.

Full stack technology refers to the entire depth of a computer system application, and full stack developers straddle two separate web development domains: the front end and the back end.

The front end includes everything that a client, or site viewer, can see and interact with. By contrast, the back end refers to all the servers, databases, and other internal architecture that drives the application; usually, the end-user never interacts with this realm directly.

The easiest way to put the full stack into perspective is to imagine a restaurant. The front end encompasses the well-decorated, comfortable seating areas where visitors enjoy their food. The kitchen and pantry make up the “back end” and are typically hidden away from the customer’s view. 

Chefs (developers) gather permanently stored materials from the pantry (the database) and perform operations on it in the kitchen (the server), and then serve up fully-prepared meals (information) to the user.

Front end developers work to optimize the visible parts of an application for web browsers and mobile devices. Front end platforms are usually built with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript; however, they can also be made via pre-packaged code libraries or content management systems like WordPress. 

Back end developers, in contrast, refine the software code that communicates with servers, databases, or other proprietary software that conveys information to front end interfaces.

Those knowledgeable in both front end and back end are called full stack developers, meaning they are well versed in both disciplines.

The term “full stack developer” originated during the early days of the web, when websites were small and uncomplicated enough to allow a single person to tackle every aspect of site-building. But in the decades since those initial days, the web has grown ever more complex. 

The rise of machine learning, predictive computing, and responsive design has made it challenging — but not impossible! — for a single developer to handle every aspect of building and designing a site or application.

Today, modern businesses often rely on entire teams of developers to operate network equipment, work with virtual machines, and manage enormous databases. It takes time to develop a comprehensive, nuts-and-bolts understanding of all these emerging technologies. 

The developers who do so are, for that reason, versatile enough to shift fluidly between front and back end development and take on any task that their team might need them to tackle.

According to a 2020 Stack Overflow survey of 65,000 developers worldwide, roughly 54.9 percent, identify as full stack.  READ MORE...

Night Lights

 

Cyber Sercurity

Cyber security is the application of technologies, processes and controls to protect systems, networks, programs, devices and data from cyber attacks.

It aims to reduce the risk of cyber attacks and protect against the unauthorised exploitation of systems, networks and technologies.

Types of cyber threats
Common cyber threats include:

1. Malware, such as ransomware, botnet software, RATs (remote access Trojans), rootkits and bootkits, spyware, Trojans, viruses and worms.
2. Backdoors, which allow remote access.
3. Formjacking, which inserts malicious code into online forms.
4. Cryptojacking, which installs illicit cryptocurrency mining software.
5. DDoS (distributed denial-of-service) attacks, which flood servers, systems and networks with traffic to knock them offline.
6. DNS (domain name system) poisoning attacks, which compromise the DNS to redirect traffic to malicious sites.

What are the 5 types of cyber security?

1. Critical infrastructure cyber security

Critical infrastructure organisations are often more vulnerable to attack than others because SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) systems often rely on older software.
Operators of essential services in the UK’s energy, transport, health, water and digital infrastructure sectors, and digital service providers are bound by the NIS Regulations (Network and Information Systems Regulations 2018).  Among other provisions, the Regulations require organisations to implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to manage their security risks.

2. Network security

Network security involves addressing vulnerabilities affecting your operating systems and network architecture, including servers and hosts, firewalls and wireless access points, and network protocols.

3. Cloud security

Cloud security is concerned with securing data, applications and infrastructure in the Cloud.

4. IoT (Internet of Things) security

IoT security involves securing smart devices and networks that are connected to the IoT. IoT devices include things that connect to the Internet without human intervention, such as smart fire alarms, lights, thermostats and other appliances.

5. Application security

Application security involves addressing vulnerabilities resulting from insecure development processes in the design, coding and publishing of software or a website.

Canada

 

HyperAutomation

Hyperautomation is a business-driven, disciplined approach that organizations use to rapidly identify, vet and automate as many business and IT processes as possible.

Hyperautomation involves the orchestrated use of multiple technologies, tools or platforms, including:

• Artificial intelligence (AI)
• Machine learning
• Event-driven software architecture
• Robotic process automation (RPA)
• Business process management (BPM) and intelligent business process management suites (iBPMS)
• Integration platform as a service (iPaaS)
• Low-code/no-code tools
• Packaged software
• Other types of decision, process and task automation tools

As a large-scale endeavor, hyperautomation requires careful planning and deliberation. At the same time, the potential upside and return-on-investment should enervate team members from across the organization; they have the opportunity to unburden teams from repetitive labor and potentially boost the success of their value-producing work.

While the goal of hyperautomation is to truly encompass all automatable processes, realistic implementation is more nuanced. A feasible hyperautomation strategy involves several key steps:

Assess budget and identify cost savings by highlighting existing automations. Workflows using RPA or other technologies can be expanded to other areas of the company in the course of the hyperautomation process.

Gather information on the existing processes that can be automated or otherwise must remain manual. Pay special attention to bottlenecks that maintain existing delays and can be improved through automation. One particularly effective technique for analysis is digital twinning, where an organization creates a virtual model of a process for deeper analysis and manipulation without affecting existing workflows.

Collect data. Automations are only as good as the data they run on, and the pipelines delivering the right data to the right place must be created alongside these machine-driven workflows. Creating a pipeline between these data stores and the automations that will use them is an essential step.

Identify automation tools. Project leaders may choose to begin by replicating one existing automation into another area of their operation, such as standardizing one automated approvals process for other decision makers. In fact, the automations themselves can be automated for more efficiency gains. It all depends on which tools and platforms are put to use throughout the project.

Predict outcomes. Automation for automation’s sake is even less effective at the enterprise-level and can lead to workers growing unclear on where their responsibilities lie. Outcome prediction involves setting the inputs for an automation, noting any hand-offs or human interventions, and predicting the results that arrive, as well as larger considerations like efficiency improvements and overall ROI.

Implement automations. AI tools can build the automations iteratively with human guidance to achieve consistent benchmarks. It’s this collaboration between machine learning and human intuition that drives successful hyperautomation endeavors, and creates clear guidance on the future of employee responsibilities.

Next Steps: Leveraging Hyperautomation
The key word for hyperautomation is interoperability. A single automation can be extended to processes, while an operation that once relied mostly or entirely on manual work can be enhanced through AI tools. A single document submission, for example, may OCR to interpret the text, sentiment analysis to identifying the underlying meaning, and AI to draft model responses. Each tool individually works on its own for a wider variety of tasks, with deployment made easy by successful replication and oversight from IT.  READ MORE...

Moose

Joe Rogan

DO as I SAY not as I DO

The Black Boom

Economic inequality continues to be one of the most hotly debated topics in America, but there has been relatively little discussion of the fact that black-white gaps in joblessness, income, poverty, and other measures were shrinking prior to the pandemic.

Why was it happening, and why did this phenomenon go unacknowledged by so much of the media?

In The Black Boom, Jason L. Riley—acclaimed Wall Street Journal columnist and senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute—digs into the data and concludes that the economic lives of black people improved significantly under policies put into place during the Trump administration. To acknowledge as much is not to endorse the 45th president but rather to champion policies that achieve a clear moral objective shared by most Americans.

As Riley argues in The Black Boom: “Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic of 2020, the economic fortunes of blacks improved under Trump to an extent that was not only unseen under Obama but unseen going back several generations. Black unemployment and poverty reached historic lows, and black wages increased at a faster clip than white wages.”

Less inequality is something that everyone wants, but disapproval of Trump’s personality and methods too often skewed the media’s appraisal of effective policies advocated by his c. If we want to make real progress in improving the lives of low-income minorities, says Riley, we must look beyond our partisan differences at what works and keep doing it. Unfortunately, many press outlets were unable or unwilling to do that.

As The Black Boom notes: “Political reporters were not unaware of this data. Rather, they chose to ignore or downplay it because it was inconvenient. In their view, Trump, because he was a Republican and because he was Trump, had it in for blacks, and thus his policy preferences would be harmful to minorities.

To highlight the fact that significant racial disparities were narrowing on his watch—that the administration’s tax and regulatory reforms were mainly boosting the working and middle classes rather than ‘the rich’—would have undermined a narrative that the media preferred to advance, regardless of its veracity.”

As with previous books in our New Threats to Freedom series, The Black Boom includes two essays from prominent experts who take issue with the author’s perspective. Juan Williams, a veteran journalist, and Wilfred Reilly, a political scientist, contribute thoughtful responses to Riley and show that it is possible to share a deep concern for disadvantaged groups in our society even while disagreeing on how best to help them.

The Black Boom exemplifies the calm, rational dialogue that Americans want and need at this moment in our history to understand which public policies best promote upward mobility for everyone.  SOURCE:  GOOGLE BOOKS

Pandering Democrats

 

Misty River

 

What Does the Vice President Do?

Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will be sworn in by Justice Sonia Sotomayor on Wednesday, a history-making event in which the first Black, South Asian and female vice president will take her oath of office from the first Latina justice. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS


On Jan. 20, Kamala Harris will become vice president of the United States – the first woman, the first person of South Asian descent, and the first African American to do so. Harris will also become the first vice president to have graduated from a historically black college or university.


Each of these achievements is significant in its own right. However, the vice presidency itself has traditionally been a relatively insignificant position, though the office has become more influential in recent years.

The 'Most Insignificant' Office?
The role of vice president is only mentioned in the U.S. Constitution a handful of times. Article I, Section 3 says that the vice president "shall be President of the Senate but shall have no Vote" except in the event of a tie. Normally, ties are rare, but the vice president's power to break them will likely become relevant to Harris as Democrats, and independents who caucus with Democrats, are expected to control only 50 of the 100 Senate seats.


The beginning of Article II, Section 1 explains how vice presidents are elected, which was later revised by the 12th Amendment. The end of that section states that presidential power "shall devolve on the Vice President" in the event of the president's "Death, Resignation, or Inability to discharge the Powers and Duties of the said Office." Finally, Article II, Section 4 states that vice presidents – like presidents – can be "removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors."


So, other than staying out of trouble to avoid impeachment and waiting around for the president to need a replacement, vice presidents are really obligated only to occasionally cast a tie-breaking vote. This means that the great majority of the time, vice presidents have no real job to do.


John Adams, the first U.S. vice president, once complained to his wife that the vice presidency was "the most insignificant Office that ever the Invention of Man contrived or his Imagination conceived." However, not all have been upset about such inactivity. Woodrow Wilson's vice president, Thomas Marshall, quipped after he retired: "I don't want to work … [but] I wouldn't mind being Vice President again."  READ MORE...

Octopus

 

Why is Joe Biden so Unpopular?

It's in a two-minute TV ad narrated in authoritative and reassuring tones by none other than Academy Award-winner Tom Hanks. It was in a graphics and light display outside the White House on Wednesday night, when the Democratic National Committee showcased record job numbers and vaccination progress. It's in the avalanche of fact sheets from the administration detailing President Joe Biden's 2021 accomplishments, and it was in the sometimes-exasperated voice of Biden himself Wednesday as he pleaded his case for a good freshman year grade.

If there were an avatar to accompany the PR campaign, it would be an image of the baffled president, lifting America up by its collective lapels and screaming, "What is wrong with you people? Why don't you LIKE ME!?"

The frustration is understandable. On paper, the Biden administration has racked up some impressive achievements: more than 6 million new jobs were created, a single-year record. Unemployment dropped from 6.2% to 3.9%, another single-year first. Childhood poverty and hunger are down while average wages went up. Biden has the first majority non-white Cabinet in history and presides over the most diverse administration in history. He passed a massive COVID-19 relief bill and an expansive infrastructure package many previous presidents tried and failed to achieve.

But as polling consistently shows, American voters don't like Biden – or at least, they don't think he's doing a good job. An average of current polling shows the president with an anemic 41.7% approval rating, with 53.4% disapproving of him. And while high inflation has alarmed many Americans, Biden's slide in the polls began last August, before prices started to jump.  READ MORE...

Moving Leaves