Blockchain: The Driving Force Of Multiple Industries

New ‘Facebook’ for animals could help protect endangered wildlife

Wildbook uses AI to turn whale-watching and safari photos into a new kind of tool to track threatened animal species. 

Read more in my CNET article here.

Enterprises are moving towards digital trends that are relevant to their business requirements. According to a survey, 85 percent of the enterprise leaders feel that they have just two years to make advancements in terms of digital innovations. 

According to a study, almost half of the organizations’ revenue will be influenced by digital trends by 2020. Here are some of the enterprise technology trends in the coming years.

What is Agile Scrum methodology?

The traditional waterfall approach to software development is a methodology wherein developers follow eight sequential steps (conception, initiation, analysis, design, construction, testing, implementation, and maintenance). A better alternative is the agile scrum methodology. 

Herein, agile teams understand... Read More

Project Management and a Growth Mindset

Small Businesses Help Us Explore Space!

Earlier this month, Congress introduced a resolution officially recognizing Nov. 24, 2018 as Small Business Saturday “to increase awareness of the value of locally owned small businesses and the impact of locally owned small businesses on the economy of the United States.”

This annual American Express campaign began on the Saturday after Thanksgiving in 2010 to support “local places that make our communities strong.”

For 60 years, we have supported and partnered with small businesses across the country to pioneer the future of space exploration, scientific discovery and aeronautics research.

Our Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) program funds the research, development and demonstration of innovative technologies that help address space exploration challenges and have significant potential for commercialization. In 2018, our program awarded 555 contracts to small businesses for a total of $180.1 million.

NASA works with small business Nanocomp Technologies Inc. of Merrimack, New Hampshire, to advance manufacturing of carbon nanotube composite materials.

Our investments in small businesses help equip future missions to the Moon, Mars and beyond by advancing our science and technology capabilities. They also benefit the U.S. economy. The SBIR/STTR program’s 2017 Economic Impact Report indicated a $2.74 return for every dollar spent on awards—money well spent!

Small businesses also contribute to scientific advances for the International Space Station as well as here on Earth. Pancopia, Inc. in Hampton, Virginia, developed an innovative, high-performance water recycling system to remove high levels of organic carbon and nitrogen in wastewater. Recycling water in space saves money on resupply and enables more Earth-independence and self-reliance. With the help of an SBIR award, Pancopia is also working on a similar system for public wastewater that has the potential to cut treatment expenses to less than half the current costs.

Small businesses also contribute to scientific advances for the International Space Station as well as here on Earth. Pancopia, Inc. in Hampton, Virginia, developed an innovative, high-performance water recycling system to remove high levels of organic carbon and nitrogen in wastewater. Recycling water in space saves money on resupply and enables more Earth-independence and self-reliance. With the help of an SBIR award, Pancopia is also working on a similar system for public wastewater that has the potential to cut treatment expenses to less than half the current costs.

When NASA went to the private sector to develop deformable mirror technology—a key component of starlight-blocking instruments—a small business in Berkeley, California, applied for research and development funding through SBIR to design extra-precision, segmented mirrors. This innovative approach for a small deformable mirror made up of many tiny hexagonal segments enables advanced control when paired with other optics.

Data collected by a telescope using the Iris AO deformable mirror can be used to determine if the target investigated in space is an exoplanet based on its orbit, and if the exoplanet has atmosphere using color spectrum imaging analysis. The Iris AO technology is currently being refined and prepared for inclusion in a future exoplanet mission.

Does your small business have a big idea? Your next opportunity to join our SBIR/STTR program starts on Jan. 7, 2019, when our next solicitation opens. We’ll be seeking new innovative ideas from small businesses and research institutions for research, development and demonstration of innovative technologies. Go to https://www.nasa.sbir.gov/ to learn more.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com

Microsoft pursues botnet herders via Russian newspapers http://☀.co.cc/iQq2e5

Worth a read :)

Phew, reading this story was a trip.

TL;DR, this chinese hacker group (successfully) coerced chinese motherboard manufacturing plants into altering the designs for their motherboards to include a tiny chip- no larger than the tip of a pencil- so that they could have control over machines that were later assembled on top of these motherboards further down the supply chain.

Their targets appear to have been large tech corporations (Apple, Amazon were/are affected), as well as positions within the US government/military. Supposedly, no consumer data was stolen or affected.

This thing is so goddamn tiny, and yet it supposedly has the power to alter essentially any instructions that get passed from OS to CPU, as it acts as intermediary in between the RAM and CPU from what I understand. It has network access due to how it’s connected to the baseboard management controller, so it can call home for instructions on what code to run, since… it can do whatever it wants with the cpu, apparently? I’d love to see a more in-depth look into how this technology works, honestly.

Considering this doesn’t seem to affect end users at all, and mostly only has caused harm to large corporations and also the US government/military… my reaction to this is mostly a mixture of “lol” and “holy shit that sounds like something out of a goddamn action movie”.

Internet of Things (IoT) drives various manufacturing and supply chain processes in its first phase of implementation. Now is the time for the world to witness the second phase of the implementation where IoT will transform the conventional industrial processes. Other technologies like Artificial Intelligence, big data, and cloud with IoT will give impetus to the development of new robust technological frameworks that drive automation to new heights off-loading burden from human shoulders.