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Show of 08-08-2020

Tech Talk August 8, 2020

Email and Forum Questions

  • Dear Doc. My wireless Apple keyboard has developed a problem. All of a sudden, several keys stopped functioning. I did not spill anything on it and I replaced the batteries. The keys in question are close to one another on the far right side of the keyboard. What could be wrong? Signed – Hunting and pecking in Baltimore
  • Tech Talk Responds: You are not the only one. This is a common complain about Apple keyboards….and they keep selling them. Some have tried various fixes and I have worked. One user opened the back of the keyboard and disconnected the ribbon cable and cleaned the contacts with isopropyl alcohol and blew them dry twice. It worked for him. Others thought it was a software issue. Some thought it a hardware issue. And Apple is silent, hoping you will buy a new one.. That is the best advice I can give.
  • Email from Allen in St. Louis: Dear Tech Talk. I have a really old Dell OptiPlex 745 desktop computer that I absolutely love. This machine has an 80 Gig hard drive. When I turn on the PC, the hard drive makes clicking sounds for about 5-10 seconds, then it finally starts booting up. It will eventually boot fully into Windows but it seems to take longer every day. Do you think the hard drive is going bad? What is the best way to copy my files from it? Love the podcast. Allen in St. Louis, MO.
  • Tech Talk Responds: The hard drive in your Dell is already “bad”. It just happens to still be partially working, which of course is a good thing. What you need to do is plug an external hard drive or large USB flash drive into an open USB port and copy the files directly from the hard drive to the external drive. Just follow the steps below. You will want to work quickly while copying your files. The old drive could stop working altogether at any moment, so time is of the essence.
    • Plug the drive you will be using to receive the recovered files into a USB port.
    • Open Windows Explorer and go to a folder that contains files you want to keep.
    • Open another instance of Windows Explorer and navigate to the external drive that will be receiving the copied files.
    • Go back to the first Windows Explorer window and select all the files you want to copy onto the external drive. If you want to copy all the files in a given folder, you can just select the folder itself.
    • Drag the selected files or the selected folder onto the external drive.
    • Repeat steps 2-5 for the other folders that contain files you want to keep.
    • Don’t forget about any files that might be residing on the Desktop.
  • When you are sure that you have transferred all the files you want to save onto the external drive, you can decide what you wish to do with the Dell computer.
  • Email from Bob in Maryland: Dear Doc, Jim, and the ‘ethereal’ Mr. Big Voice. Today was another classic show, I have to say, ‘lockdown edition’. These ‘Lockdown Edition’ shows have their own special flair (flare?) and I particularly like the ‘Observations from the Bunker’. It is all good stuff. As I was listening, I googled BBN and looked at their Wikipedia page. There, I stumbled across what appears to be a veritable ‘treasure trove’ of potential Profiles in IT candidates for Doc to peruse and consider. Maybe some of these people you have featured. And some you might have missed. So there are a few options there to consider. As always, I love the show, and try never to miss it. I am always working on my friends to recruit more listeners, particularly other physicists (with a mathematician or two thrown in for fun). I even try to get my friends in Canada to listen. Keep up the good work, Bob in Maryland.
  • Tech Talk Responds: Thanks for the list of BBNers. Bolt, Beranek and Newman is a technology company in Cambridge, Massachusetts that was a pioneer in the early days of the Internet. I already featured many on those on the list, but not all. Thanks for referring your friends to the show.
  • Email from Tung in Cleveland: Dear Tech Talk. My mom’s friend told her to be careful about what she puts on her Facebook page because once something’s posted on Facebook it stays on the Internet forever. I told my mom that isn’t true because if she deletes a post it’ll be gone immediately, but she said the things you delete aren’t really gone. My question is how can I convince my mom that things she posts and then deletes won’t stay on the Internet? Tung in Cleveland, OH.
  • Tech Talk Responds: While it is certainly true that anything your mom posts to her Facebook account will be immediately removed from her account the instant she deletes it, the deleted information (photo, video, text, etc.) could still exist somewhere else on the Internet.
  • Depending on your mom’s Facebook privacy settings, one of her friends (or a complete stranger for that matter) could have seen the item and downloaded it to their computer or mobile device, then posted it on their own Facebook account. If that were to happen (and it does happen all the time), the item would indeed be gone from your mom’s Facebook account after she deleted it, but it would still exist in her friend’s account. Once something is posted on Facebook, anyone that can see the item can copy it and share it with other Facebook users, even if the original post’s privacy settings don’t allow the post to be shared via an official “Share” button. Even worse, stolen (i.e. copied) photos, videos and information can easily be shared in other places besides just Facebook.
  • In addition, Facebook’s servers also keep backup copies of deleted information for some time after its deletion. That allows them to comply with any court orders that might be issued for the release of the deleted info.
  • Email from Stu in Kilmarnock: Dear Tech Talk. I would like to control by boatlift wirelessly. Sometimes I have to adjust the lift when I am returning because the tide has changed the water level. Is there some type of Bluetooth or WiFi remote for a lift? Enjoy the podcast. Stu in Kilmarnock, VA
  • Tech Talk Responds: WiFi is not an option because are too far from your house to get a good signal. The Bluetooth range (less than 20 feet) is too short to be of use to you. You will need to use one of the unlicensed RF bands for a radio connection. There are a few options that use the unlicensed 340MHz band. They require low power transmission. However, your range can be up to 500 ft. You have several options:
    • LiftPower LP30 Remote Boatlift Control ($450.00). This support two motors with tilt leveling.
    • GEM GR2A Double Motor Remote with Auto Stop Capability ($579.99).This supports up to four motors and has auto stop capability for preset locations using limit switches. Very convenient.
  • Email from Susan in Alexandria: Good morning, Dr. Shurtz. I just wondered what you and Jim think AAA’s testing of partially automated driving systems says about the future of fully autonomous vehicles. I have heard they have problems. Thanks again for your informative and entertaining show! Susan in Alexandria, VA
  • Tech Talk Responds: The driver assist mode in autonomous vehicles has troble spotting stationary vehicles in the lane. I also can be confused by some road configuration when maintaining the lane. They work most of the time and can be useful, if the driver stays alert and does not rely on them completely. Unfortunates, these systems, lull the driver into thinking that the technology will work all the time. And that can be dangerous. Progress is being made at a fast clip and we will eventually have autonomous operation on highways. Autonomous city driving is further away and a much more difficult problem. Tesla leader of the pack now, but all automakers are jumping onto the bandwagon. This is a trend that will not stop. Machine learning will play a big role in optimizing the software. The big decision is whether to use Laser Radar (LIDAR). LIDAR can detect readily detect objects even if they blend with the background, but it is bulky and expensive. Elon Muck contends it is not needed for Tesla, other disagree (Waymo and Uber).
  • Tesla’s deep learning algorithms are not very good at dealing with unexpected scenery. In 2016, a Tesla crashed into a tractor-trailer truck because its AI algorithm failed to detect the vehicle against the brightly lit sky. In another incident, a Tesla self-drove into a concrete barrier, killing the driver. And there have been several incidents of Tesla vehicles on Autopilot crashing into parked fire trucks and overturned vehicles. In all cases, the neural network was seeing a scene that was not included in its training data or was too different from what it had been trained on.
  • Tesla is constantly updating its deep learning models to deal with “edge cases,” as these new situations are called. But the problem is, we don’t know how many of these edge cases exist. They’re virtually limitless, which is what it is often referred to as the “long tail” of problems deep learning must solve.

 

 

Profiles in IT: John McCarthy

  • John McCarthy was an computer scientist, best known was one of the founders of the discipline of AI and for developing the Lisp programming language.
  • John McCarthy was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on September 4, 1927.
  • McCarthy was exceptionally intelligent, and graduated from Belmont High School two years early. McCarthy was accepted into Caltech in 1944.
  • As a teen, he taught himself college mathematics by studying the textbooks used at the nearby California Institute of Technology (Caltech). He was able to skip the first two years of mathematics at Caltech.
  • McCarthy was suspended from Caltech for failure to attend Phys Ed courses.
  • He then served in the US Army and was readmitted, receiving a B.S. in Math in 1948.
  • His furture research was inspired by a Caltect lecture by John von Neumann.
  • McCarthy initially completed graduate studies at Caltech before moving to Princeton University. He received a Ph.D. in mathematics from Princeton in 1951.
  • After short-term appointments at Princeton and Stanford University, McCarthy became an assistant professor at Dartmouth in 1955.
  • A year later, McCarthy moved to MIT as a research fellow in the autumn of 1956.
  • In 1962, McCarthy became a full professor at Stanford. He retired in 2000..
  • McCarthy championed mathematical logic for artificial intelligence.
  • John McCarthy is one of the “founding fathers” of artificial intelligence, together with Alan Turing, Marvin Minsky, Allen Newell, and Herbert A. Simon.
  • McCarthy coined the term “artificial intelligence” in 1955, and organized the famous Dartmouth conference in Summer 1956. This conference started AI as a field.
  • McCarthy invented Lisp in the late 1950s. Based on the lambda calculus, Lisp soon became the programming language of choice for AI applications.
  • Lambda calculus is a formal system in mathematical logic for expressing computation. It can be used to simulate any Turing machine.
  • Lisp is the second-oldest high-level programming language in widespread use today. Only Fortran is older, by one year.
  • As one of the earliest programming languages, Lisp pioneered many ideas in computer science, including tree data structures, automatic storage management, dynamic typing, conditionals, higher-order functions, recursion, the self-hosting compiler, and the read–eval–print loop.
  • In 1958, McCarthy served on an ACM Ad hoc Committee on Languages that became part of the committee that designed ALGOL 60 (Algorithmic Language 1960).
  • He helped to motivate the creation of the MIT Project MAC (Project on Mathematics and Computation), which sought to create a functional time-sharing system.
  • McCarthy was instrumental in creation of three of the very earliest time-sharing systems (Compatible Time-Sharing System, BBN Time-Sharing System, and Dartmouth Time Sharing System).
  • In 1961, he was perhaps the first to suggest publicly the idea of utility computing, in a speech given to celebrate MIT’s centennial: that computer time-sharing technology might result in a future in which computing power and even specific applications could be sold through the utility business model (like water or electricity).
  • Since 2000, the idea has resurfaced in new forms (see application service provider, grid computing, and cloud computing).
  • In 1966, McCarthy and his team at Stanford wrote a computer program used to play a series of chess games with counterparts in the Soviet Union;
  • McCarthy often commented on world affairs on the Usenet forums. Some of his ideas can be found in his sustainability Web page.
  • McCarthy saw the importance of mathematics and mathematics education. His license plate cover read, “Do the arithmetic or be doomed to talk nonsense.”
  • Raised as a Communist, he became a conservative Republican after a two-day visit to Czechoslovakia in 1968 after the Soviet invasion.
  • McCarthy died at his home in Stanford on October 24, 2011.

Observations from the Bunker

  • Can computers be conscious? Can become self-aware?
  • Billions of dollars have been spent on developing self directed computers, machines that would duplicate the functions of the human brain.
  • Neuroscientists believe that it is just a matter of time before consciousness will be duplicated.
  • They expect that they will soon understand how the brain produces consciousness and be able to simulate it on computers.
  • So passionate are some believers in the future of consciousness research that, like evangelists, they promulgate their beliefs and demean people who disagree.
  • On the other hand, some philosophers pontificate about the impossibility of ever understanding the true nature of consciousness.
  • Can computers be conscious? If don’t think s. First, scientists cannot agree on what consciousness is. It is unlikely that they will ever agree. None offer the possibility of a computer program which might produce consciousness. Second, there is no physical or theoretical evidence that anything not alive can be conscious.
  • Computers may have simulated, but they have never duplicated brain processes. There is no existing evidence that they ever will.
  • In spite of the number of ways it has been defined, consciousness remains a contradictory, rather mysterious subject.

App of the Week: COVIDWISE

  • Virginia is First State to use COVID-19 Tracing App
  • The Exposure Notification API developed by Apple and Google is officially being put to use in the United States.
  • Virginia has become the first U.S. state to offer a COVID-19 contact tracing application using the Apple and Google API, and it’s available to download today from the App Store for iOS and Google Play for Android.
  • The COVIDWISE app comes from the Virginia Department of Health. Apple only allows public health agencies like Health Canada to access the Exposure Notification API. That is, not anyone can simply build an app using the API.
  • By using the Exposure Notification API, the COVIDWISE app uses Bluetooth to exchange random identifiers with nearby phones and subsequently checks against a list of identifiers from people who have reported a positive test.
  • If someone reports to the app that they tested positive, the signals from their app will search for other app users who shared that signal. The BLE signals are date-stamped and the app estimates how close the two devices were based on signal strength.
  • If the timeframe was at least 15 minutes and the estimated distance was within six feet, then the other user receives a notification of a possible exposure. No names! No location!
  • Furthermore, the Virginia Department of Health emphasizes that widespread adoption of the app is important to help slow the spread of COVID-19:
  • Your personal use of COVIDWISE will significantly help inform Virginians suspected of having been within close proximity to someone with a positive COVID-19 diagnosis.
  • Only three other states have publicly signed on to use the API: North Dakota, Alabama, and South Carolina.
  • You can download Virginia’s COVIDWISE app from the App Store for iOS and Google Play for Android.

Microsoft Negotiating to Buy TikTok

  • Microsoft plans to finish its acquisition talks with TikTok before the end of August 2020, ahead of the Sept. 15 deadline.
  • If the deal goes through, Microsoft has already agreed with the U.S. government to bring TikTok’s code from China to the U.S. within one year.
  • The two sides haven’t agreed on a price for TikTok yet, but it could be between $10 billion and $30 billion.
  • Microsoft could likely transfer TikTok’s software code, which could be up to 15 million lines of artificial intelligence.
  • Microsoft confirmed in a blog post Sunday it has held talks with TikTok’s China-based parent company ByteDance to buy its business in the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand. It’s currently the only apparent, leading bidder.
  • TikTok has been under fire from the Trump administration, which has accused the Chinese-owned app of collecting data on Americans and sending it to the Chinese government. (TikTok has repeatedly denied this.)
  • President Donald Trump has stressed that he will ban the app if ByteDance doesn’t sell the widely-popular unit to an American company by September 15.

Astronauts Return Home in SpaceX’s Crew Dragon

  • S. astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley have safely returned home in the SpaceX Dragon capsule. Their splash-down was on Sunday in the Gulf of Mexico off Florida.
  • They endured tremendous, jolting forces as the SpaceX-built Crew Dragon, an acorn-shaped vehicle that had carried them to the International Space Station, fired rocket thrusters to slow its descent for re-entry, then pierced the outer atmosphere.
  • As the capsule streaked deeper through the sky, atmospheric friction heated the protective heat shield of the Crew Dragon to 3,500 Fahrenheit, slowing its rate of descent to 350 mph.
  • At that point, the first of two sets of parachutes were deployed, abruptly breaking the capsule’s speed further. It was a pretty significant jolt.
  • The second set of chutes gradually slowed the capsule to a gentle 15-mph rate of descent for a splash-down.
  • Minutes later, recovery teams dispatched by SpaceX, the California-based rocket company founded by Elon Musk, hoisted the capsule onto a boat. Behnken and Hurley where then flown by helicopter to shore to catch a private flight to Houston.
  • The two were launched to the International Space Station from Florida on May 31, embarking on a two-month journey to prove the Crew Dragon capsule safe for transporting humans to and from space.
  • While bobbing in the water just after splash-down awaiting recovery teams, Hurley said they completed one final test objective for the mission: “making a satellite phone call to whoever we can get a hold of.”
  • “There was a real reason for it,” Hurley said, in all seriousness, explaining that they needed to prove they could contact mission control using a sat-phone in case the crew landed from space in an unexpected part of the ocean.

Tips of the Week: PDF Tricks and Hints

  • PDFs are great to read, but difficult to fill out, edit, or merge. There are some nice tools to help.
  • Filling Out a PDF. Instead of printing it out, writing out all your responses by hand, somehow reconverting it into a digital format, and then emailing it back, try using Adobe’s own free, handy online tool. Upload the PDF you need to fill out, sign into the service, and you’ll find your document opened up and Adobe’s Fill & Sign feature highlighted—no need to download Acrobat Reader first. You’ve got access to text, various check marks, and a method by which to include your signature. Once you’re ready to send it back, you can create a read-only link to copy and paste into an email message. Alternatively, you can also email it directly to someone right from the online tool. Link: https://www.adobe.com/acrobat/online/sign-pdf.html?red=a
  • Combining multiple PDFs. Should you find yourself needing to combine a collection of individual PDFs into one big master PDF, there are a handful of ways to do it, but Smallpdf’s free online PDF merger tool is about as easy as it gets. You can drag and drop the individual PDFs right into the site or grab them from Google Drive or Dropbox instead. Once you’ve got everything loaded up, you can rearrange the documents however you like or add others you might have forgotten. When you’re happy with how things look, hit the “Merge PDF” button and you’ll be able to download the master PDF, email it, copy a link to it, or send it over to Google Drive or Dropbox. Link: https://smallpdf.com/merge-pdf