Coexisting With the Void: Simone Gorrindo on Chronic Pain

At Vela, Simone Gorrindo contemplates “the terrible thing that the slowness of pain gives you: time” in this meditation on how chronic illness affects the body and mind.

Source: Coexisting With the Void: Simone Gorrindo on Chronic Pain

Japan chases title of world’s fastest computer with new system

Taking a cue from China, Japan is developing a new supercomputer that could be among the world’s fastest systems when released in 2020.

Image result for japan made fastest computer

The computer — being developed as part of a national project called Flagship2020 — is being developed with the aim to deliver “100 times more application performance” than the current K, which is installed in Japan and is the world’s third-fastest computer, according to the Top500 list of supercomputers, released on Monday.

The supercomputer will be deployed by 2020. It is being developed by Fujitsu and Japanese research institution RIKEN, which also developed K. The current K supercomputer has 705,204 processing cores and offers 10.5 petaflops of performance.

Details about the new supercomputer will be shared  at two different sessions on Tuesday at the Supercomputing 15 conference being held in Austin, Texas.

The systems will be based on the Linux OS and the use of a “6D mesh” will be considered, according to details shared on the Supercomputing 15 website. That indicates the use of a six dimensional design, which could facilitate connections for  more simultaneous CPUs, memory and storage compared to systems today. The system will also have many storage layers, according to information on the site.

The current K is based on Fujitsu’s SPARC64 VIIIfx processors and Tofu interconnect.

The U.S., Japan and China are in a race to build the world’s fastest supercomputer. An earlier version of the K computer briefly held the title of the world’s fastest supercomputer in 2011. China’s Tianhe-2 is the world’s fastest supercomputer today, delivering peak performance of 54.9 petaflops.

Countries are rushing to develop faster computers to boast about their progress in technology, but also to boost economic, weapons and science programs.

A number of supercomputers that are faster than existing systems are on the horizon. A U.S. Department of Energy supercomputer called Aurora, due in 2019, will deliver 180 petaflops of performance. China is also planning a supercomputer of more than 100 petaflops.

The countries are hoping to create exascale supercomputers between 2018 and 2020, in which systems can conduct million trillion calculations per second.

#internet, #science, #technology

10 Things Windows Phones Do Better Than Android Phones

Alright, alright, calm yourselves, keyboard warriors, we know this is something most of you would probably not agree with because let’s face it, with over 80 percent of smartphone market share in the world, the Android mobile operating system leads the rest of the competition by a mile.

Perhaps because it is the OS adopted by many leading brands of smartphones,fragmentation becomes an issue that plagues Android-powered phone.Here is a post by Azzief Khaliq that argues for and against the effects of Android OS fragmentation you should check out.

Here, the Windows Phone’s fast and user-friendly OS plus its integration with Microsoft-linked products has given many users, particularly who work a lot with Windows products, a reason to consider the integrated mobile platform. On the surface, it offers the same functionality (and perhaps a bit more) as do other platforms but these are 10 features that you may find better on a Windows Phone than on an Android.

1. Quality Build Phones With Exceptional Design For Everyone

The biggest ammo to join the arsenal of Windows phones has to be Nokia’s partnership. With phones ranging from $180 to $425, sporting screen sizes from 4″ to 6″, Nokia has plenty of choices not just for the budget-conscious but also those are looking for a powerful, sleek phone, for instance like Nokia Lumia 1020 with 41 megapixel camera sensor and Full HD video. You definitely can get good value for your money if you just keep your eyes open for a good alternative phone, rather than stop looking once it isn’t on a “popular” OS.

2. Gorgeous Apps

Although the Windows App Store lags behind the Play Store in terms of quantity, what counts with apps is the quality and so far Windows phoneshave the basic necessities covered. Windows Phone is not an open source platform and Microsoft has a stricter criteria set than Google about which apps and games can populate their respective marketplaces.

As a result, the app store responds with superior and better apps, and cleaner options, than what Android apps can offer. They are consistent, gorgeous, minimalistic and in many cases, look better than they do on Android. I’d suggest you take a look at 6tag (3rd party app for Instagram), Spotify, Skype, and Facebook.

3. Seamless Email And Social Media Integration

Windows Phone with its mission to build an end-to-end product experience for its customers, has a soild built-in social media integrated hub that they use; it’s very smooth and fluid. The People Hub gets updates from social networkslike Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Rather than opening individual apps one by one, all your friends’ status updates and notifications can be viewed within the People Hub.

Facebook integration on Windows Phone also makes it better than Android when it comes to tagging pictures. It also allows you to use your phone contacts as tags. You can switch between Facebook chat and normal text messaging with your contacts on Windows Phone.

4. Microsoft Integration and Support

Those who are used to Microsoft’s service and software would be glad to know Windows Phone works well with Microsoft products like Outlook.com. OneDrive Skype, Xbox, and OneNote. Unlike Android, Windows Phone comes with free Office in the OS itself. The mobile version is handy for on-the-go professionals. You can view and edit, Excel, PowerPoint and Word documents straight on your Windows Phone. It also integrates with OneDrive and users can save their compatible files on Microsoft’s cloud storage service.

5. Consistency Across All Devices

Android comes in so many shapes and sizes, so performance and quality are always a question. Windows Phone however works well on all levels of devices from the entry-level Lumia 520 to the high-end Lumia 1020 without any noticeable lag whatsoever. The minimalist design approach is applied at all Nokia’s Lumia range of devices and known for best build quality.

6. Customizations on Lockscreen

Windows Phone allows you to check out your notifications from your lockscreen. Not only you can change Background pictures in Lock screen settings, but Windows Phones also allow the integration of live apps on the lockscreen. Some of the better app integrations are Bing and Facebook. Bing displays the Bing Picture of the Day while Facebook displays photos from your albums.

You can also choose from photos of yourself or create a selection of photos to be shown on your lockscreen. Another cool thing that you could do is to configure the lock screen to display artist information when playing music.

7. Play your XBox games on Windows Phone

If you own an XBox, Windows Phone has the perfect XBox integration to help you get the most out of your games, even on low-RAM devices. Microsoft has worked hard to integrate Xbox functionality, meaning you can work with your console avatar to gain points, check your Gamerscore, message your friends and see your avatar.

Despite Android having more games, Windows Phones get Xbox games such as Asphalt 8: Airborne, Jetpack Joyride, Six Guns and FIFA 14 for free. All of the games run smoothly; even on the low end Nokia Lumia Phones, playing games is a breeze.

8. Versatility of Live Tiles

Windows Phones allow users to pin whatever they want and how they want. Instead of widgets, each app on your home screen acts as a Live Tile. They give you a quick glimpse of what’s going on in each individual app. We can see the time and weather via the weather tile and notifications from Twitter, WhatsApp, SMS and email all from the main screen.

Widgets on Android are their own separate entities and their customized looks as designed by their developers. These designs thus can hardly mesh together aesthetically, especially without any form of standardization. Tiles, on the other hand, blend in and complement the overall aesthetic perfectly and they also change dynamically.

9. Offline Maps Integration

Windows Phone have HERE Maps and HERE Drive integrated to its Lumia range, basically Nokia’s alternative to Android’s Google Maps. It comes with full offline capabilities. Some Android smartphones such as Galaxy S4 also has offline navigation in Google Maps, but while Google Maps only allows you to download small areas of offline maps, you can download maps of countries with the Nokia Lumia Phones and navigate across the country without a data connection while driving.

10. Ever Expandable Storage

Most Windows Phone, even the entry level ones have 8GB of internal storage and supports a microSD card of up to 64 GB. The free 7 GB cloud storage from Onedrive makes it even better. This reduces the need to fall back on third-party online storage solutions, which may come with compatibility issues. OneDrivelets you backup content to the cloud, Windows tablets, PCs, and of course the Windows Phone.

Conclusion

While Android offers greater app flexibility, Windows Phone offers great potential, better integration over more platforms and fluidity. With the changing smartphone market, the world needs a solid platform that has quality and the potential to develop into a full range solution, that spans across mobile, desktop and the cloud. The strategies are already in place, and if Nokia and Windows Phone can weather the storm, they may one day be able to unseat Android from its iron grip of the smartphone OS market.

#android-2, #comparision, #features, #window-phones

Bachelor of Science in Telecommunications Engineering

Telecommunications engineering lies at the heart of most information exchange, including telephone communications, broadcasting and the Internet. this program provides a blend of knowledge from electrical engineering and computer science, focusing on communications networks and systems.

Careers in Telecommunications Engineering

Telecommunications engineering is a dynamic and rapidly developing field as a result of today’s heavy reliance on the Internet, cellphones, broadband, wireless networks, broadcasting and satellite applications. Telecom engineers design, implement and manage systems for processing and transmitting information, finding career opportunities in such areas as:

  • Computer communications and networking
  • Mobile communications
  • Voice and data networks
  • TV and radio broadcasting
  • Optical networking
  • Remote sensing, measurement and control
  • Next-generation networks

Telecommunications engineers also find employment in broader areas such as electronic engineering, instrumentation engineering, computer engineering, systems analysis and control engineering.

High School Preparation

 

Engineering education requires strong high school preparation. Pre-engineering students should have high school preparation of at least one semester of trigonometry and at least one year each in elementary algebra, intermediate and advanced algebra, plane geometry, chemistry, and physics, thus developing their competencies to the highest possible levels and preparing them to move immediately into demanding college courses in calculus, calculus-based physics, and chemistry for science majors. It’s also essential that pre-engineering students be able to read rapidly and write clearly.

Telecommunications Engineering at Universities

The telecom engineering program is based on a solid foundation of science and mathematics coursework. Students learn to extend their abilities to analyze and solve complex problems and to design new uses of technology to serve society. The program provides an integrated educational experience directed toward the development of the ability to apply pertinent knowledge to the identification and solution of practical problems in electrical and telecommunications engineering. The design experience, which includes both analytical and experimental studies, is integrated throughout the curriculum in a sequential development leading to advanced work.

 

#bachelor-of-science, #bachelor-of-science-in-telecommunications-engineering, #engineering, #science

ARE YOU SMARTER THAN AN A.I. SEARCH ENGINE?

Source: ARE YOU SMARTER THAN AN A.I. SEARCH ENGINE?

How to Rename Internet Explorer to Firefox/Chrome Downloader

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Now that Internet Explorer has officially dropped below 50% market share, it’s high time that we rename it to a more fitting title: Google Chrome Downloader, or if you prefer, Firefox Downloader.

Obviously this is a very stupid geek trick, and the reality is that Internet Explorer 9 is a very capable browser that works well. But don’t spoil our fun!

Renaming Internet Explorer to Firefox/Chrome Downloader

The first thing you’ll want to do is open up regedit.exe through the Start Menu search or Run box, and browse down to the following key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main

Once there, create a new String key on the right-hand side, call it Window Title, and set the text to Chrome Downloader, Firefox Downloader, or something else entirely.

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You should probably also open up the properties pane on any IE shortcuts and change the General tab to the new text.

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Next, you should change the home page of Internet Explorer to the Chrome or Firefox download page:

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Awesome Results

Now that you’ve done the rename and closed all the IE windows, you can launch it again and see that the title is really changed everywhere, including Alt-Tab:

image

And even Task Manager:

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If you’re the techie fix-it guy in your family, all you have to do is set this up on everybody’s computer, and they won’t be confused again.

#browser, #google-2, #how-to-rename-internet-explorer-to-firefoxchrome-downloader, #searchengine

The Beginner’s Guide to Shell Scripting: The Basics

The Beginner’s Guide to Shell Scripting: The Basics

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The term “shell scripting” gets mentioned often in Linux forums, but many users aren’t familiar with it. Learning this easy and powerful programming method can help you save time, learn the command-line better, and banish tedious file management tasks.

What Is Shell Scripting?

Being a Linux user means you play around with the command-line. Like it or not, there are just some things that are done much more easily via this interface than by pointing and clicking. The more you use and learn the command-line, the more you see its potential. Well, the command-line itself is a program: the shell. Most Linux distros today use Bash, and this is what you’re really entering commands into.

Now, some of you who used Windows before using Linux may remember batch files. These were little text files that you could fill with commands to execute and Windows would run them in turn. It was a clever and neat way to get some things done, like run games in your high school computer lab when you couldn’t open system folders or create shortcuts. Batch files in Windows, while useful, are a cheap imitation of shell scripts.

cbr script

Shell scripts allow us to program commands in chains and have the system execute them as a scripted event, just like batch files. They also allow for far more useful functions, such as command substitution. You can invoke a command, like date, and use it’s output as part of a file-naming scheme. You can automate backups and each copied file can have the current date appended to the end of its name. Scripts aren’t just invocations of commands, either. They’re programs in their own right. Scripting allows you to use programming functions – such as ‘for’ loops, if/then/else statements, and so forth – directly within your operating system’s interface. And, you don’t have to learn another language because you’re using what you already know: the command-line.

That’s really the power of scripting, I think. You get to program with commands you already know, while learning staples of most major programming languages. Need to do something repetitive and tedious? Script it! Need a shortcut for a really convoluted command? Script it! Want to build a really easy to use command-line interface for something? Script it!

Before You Begin

Before we begin our scripting series, let’s cover some basic information. We’ll be using the bash shell, which most Linux distributions use natively. Bash is available for Mac OS users and Cygwin on Windows, too. Since it’s so universal, you should be able to script regardless of your platform. In addition, so long as all of the commands that are referenced exist, scripts can work on multiple platforms with little to no tweaking required.

Scripting can easily make use of “administrator” or “superuser” privileges, so it’s best to test out scripts before you put them to work. Also use common sense, like making sure you have backups of the files you’re about to run a script on. It’s also really important to use the right options, like –i for the rm command, so that your interaction is required. This can prevent some nasty mistakes. As such, read through scripts you download and be careful with data you have, just in case things go wrong.

At their core, scripts are just plain text files. You can use any text editor to write them: gedit, emacs, vim, nano… This list goes on. Just be sure to save it as plain text, not as rich text, or a Word document. Since I love the ease of use that nano provides, I’ll be using that.

Script Permissions and Names

Scripts are executed like programs, and in order for this to happen they need to have the proper permissions. You can make scripts executable by running the following command on it:

chmod +x ~/somecrazyfolder/script1

This will allow anyone to run that particular script. If you want to restrict its use to just your user, you can use this instead:

chmod u+x ~/somecrazyfolder/script1

In order to run this script, you would have to cd into the proper directory and then run the script like this:

cd ~/somecrazyfolder

./script1

To make things more convenient, you can place scripts in a “bin” folder in your home directory:

~/bin

In many modern distros, this folder no longer is created by default, but you can create it. This is usually where executable files are stored that belong to your user and not to other users. By placing scripts here, you can just run them by typing their name, just like other commands, instead of having to cd around and use the ‘./’ prefix.

Before you name a script, though, you should the following command to check if you have a program installed that uses that name:

which [command]

A lot of people name their early scripts “test,” and when they try to run it in the command-line, nothing happens. This is because it conflicts with the test command, which does nothing without arguments. Always be sure your script names don’t conflict with commands, otherwise you may find yourself doing things you don’t intend to do!

Scripting Guidelines

guidelines

As I mentioned before, every script file is essentially plain text. That doesn’t mean you can write what you want all willy-nilly, though. When a text file is attempted to be executed, shells will parse through them for clues as to whether they’re scripts or not, and how to handle everything properly. Because of this, there are a few guidelines you need to know.

  1. Every script should being with “#!/bin/bash”
  2. Every new line is a new command
  3. Comment lines start with a #
  4. Commands are surrounded by ()

The Hash-Bang Hack

When a shell parses through a text file, the most direct way to identify the file as a script is by making your first line:

#!/bin/bash

If you use another shell, substitute its path here. Comment lines start with hashes (#), but adding the bang (!) and the shell path after it is a sort of hack that will bypass this comment rule and will force the script to execute with the shell that this line points to.

New Line = New Command

Every new line should be considered a new command, or a component of a larger system. If/then/else statements, for example, will take over multiple lines, but each component of that system is in a new line. Don’t let a command bleed over into the next line, as this can truncate the previous command and give you an error on the next line. If your text editor is doing that, you should turn off text-wrapping to be on the safe side. You can turn off text wrapping in nano bit hitting ALT+L.

Comment Often with #s

If you start a line with a #, the line is ignored. This turns it into a comment line, where you can remind yourself of what the output of the previous command was, or what the next command will do. Again, turn off text wrapping, or break you comment into multiple lines that all begin with a hash. Using lots of comments is a good practice to keep, as it lets you and other people tweak your scripts more easily. The only exception is the aforementioned Hash-Bang hack, so don’t follow #s with !s. 😉

Commands Are Surrounded By Parentheses

In older days, command substitutions were done with single tick marks (`, shares the ~ key). We’re not going to be touching on this yet, but as most people go off and explore after learning the basics, it’s probably a good idea to mention that you should use parentheses instead. This is mainly because when you nest – put commands inside other commands – parentheses work better.

Your First Script

Let’s start with a simple script that allows you to copy files and append dates to the end of the filename. Let’s call it “datecp”. First, let’s check to see if that name conflicts with something:

which cp

You can see that there’s no output of the which command, so we’re all set to use this name.

Let’s create a blank file in the ~/bin folder:

touch ~/bin/datecp

touch

And, let’s change the permission now, before we forget:

chmod

Let’s start building our script then. Open up that file in your text editor of choice. Like I said, I like the simplicity of nano.

nano ~/bin/datecp

And, let’s go ahead and put in the prerequisite first line, and a comment about what this script does.

hashbang hack

Next, let’s declare a variable. If you’ve ever taken algebra, you probably know what a that is. A variable allows us to store information and do things with it. Variables can “expand” when referenced elsewhere. That is, instead of displaying their name, they will display their stored contents. You can later tell that same variable to store different information, and any instruction that occurs after that will use the new information. It’s a really fancy placeholder.

What will we put in out variable? Well, let’s store the date and time! To do this, we’ll call upon the date command.

Take a look at the screenshot below for how to build the output of the date command:

date output

You can see that by adding different variables that start with %, you can change the output of the command to what you want. For more information, you can look at the manual page for the date command.

Let’s use that last iteration of the date command, “date +%m_%d_%y-%H.%M.%S”, and use that in our script.

date in script

If we were to save this script right now, we could run it and it would give us the output of the date command like we’d expect:

date script output

But, let’s do something different. Let’s give a variable name, like date_formatted to this command. The proper syntax for this is as follows:

variable=$(command –options arguments)

And for us, we’d build it like this:

date_formatted=$(date +%m_%d_%y-%H.%M.%S)

date as variable

This is what we call command substitution. We’re essentially telling bash that whenever the variable “date_formatted” shows up, to run the command inside the parentheses. Then, whatever output the commands gives should be displayed instead of the name of the variable, “date_formatted”.

Here’s an example script and its output:

echo date script

echo date output

Note that there are two spaces in the output. The space within the quotes of the echo command and the space in front of the variable are both displayed. Don’t use spaces if you don’t want them to show up. Also note that without this added “echo” line, the script would give absolutely no output.

Let’s get back to our script. Let’s next add in the copying part of the command.

cp –iv $1 $2.$date_formatted

appended filename

This will invoke the copy command, with the –i and –v options. The former will ask you for verification before overwriting a file, and the latter will display what is being down on the command-line.

Next, you can see I’ve added the “$1” option. When scripting, a dollar sign ($) followed by a number will denote that numbered argument of the script when it was invoked. For example, in the following command:

cp –iv Trogdor2.mp3 ringtone.mp3

The first argument is “Trogdor2.mp3” and the second argument is “ringtone.mp3”.

Looking back at our script, we can see that we’re referencing two arguments:

appended filename

This means that when we run the script, we’ll need to provide two arguments for the script to run correctly. The first argument, $1, is the file that will be copied, and is substituted as the “cp –iv” command’s first argument.

The second argument, $2, will act as the output file for the same command. But, you can also see that it’s different. We’ve added a period and we’ve referenced the “date_formatted” variable from above. Curious as to what this does?

Here’s what happens when the script is run:

appended filename output

You can see that the output file is listed as whatever I entered for $2, followed by a period, then the output of the date command! Makes sense, right?

Now when I run the datecp command, it will run this script and allow me to copy any file to a new location, and automatically add the date and time to end of the filename. Useful for archiving stuff!

 


Shell scripting is at the heart of making your OS work for you. You don’t have to learn a new programming language to make it happen, either. Try scripting with some basic commands at home and start thinking of what you can use this for.

 

Do you script? Have any advice for newbies? Share your thoughts in the comments! There’s more to come in this series!

#programming, #shell-script, #the-beginners-guide-to-shell-scripting-the-basics

Batch Programming Dos Scripting VS Shell Scripting

 

Image result for Batch Programming (Dos Scripting) VS Shell Scripting

Its a good experience to work on DOS scripts(aka Batch programming). There are manysimilarities/differences/advantages/disadvantages between Batch programmingand Shell scripting. Lets see what they are.

Similarities
Sl.No Batch programming Shell script
1 Sequential execution of  group commands in a batch file Sequential execution of  groupcommand in shell scripts
2 Can read inputs from users Can read inputs from users
3 Has control structures such as for, if, while, switch for better automating/scripting Has control structures such as for, if, while, switch for better automating/scripting
4 Supports advanced features such as Functions and Arrays Supports advanced features such as Functions and Arrays
5 Supports regular expressions(using findstr) Supports regular expressions
6 Can include other programming codes such as perl(ie.. in middle of dos script we can include some other programming language code for effective scripting to get our desired output) Can include other programming codes such as Perl, AWK, SED etc.
Differences
Sl.No Batch programming Shell script
1 Lack of richness of tools/commands Have good number of tools(as of my knowledge there are more than 75000 commands in Linux/Unix)
2 Supports only one vendor(i.e. windows) Supports for number of vendors such as Sun/apple/IBM AIX/HP-UX/GNU Linux etc.
3 No other variants for DOS There are number of variants such as bash, ksh, csh, zsh etc..
4 Low capabilities of integrating with other programming code in batch scripting Good capabilities of integrating other programming code in shell script
5 Cannot handle complex regular expressions Can handle complex regular expressions.
6 A batch file should always end with .bat There is no such concept like file extension, but a shell script file permission should be set to executable.
7 To execute a batch program just enter the file name at CLI To execute a shell script, here are the ways to execute it
1)chmod +x shellscript.sh;./shellscript.sh
2)sh shellscript.sh

#batch-programming, #shell-script

Robot Programming languages

A robot will require a programming language for describing the operations that are to be done. Recently, there are plenty of robot programming languages available. Among them, five robot languages are commonly and basically used. They are:

  • RAIL
  • AML
  • VAL
  • AL
  • RPL

RAIL:

RAIL will be a best language for controlling two major tasks such as the manipulation and visionsystem. It is a high – level robot language based on Pascal, and it will implement a Motorola–68000 central processor, teach pendant, and terminal. This language was designed by Automatix for arc welding and inspection purposes.

RAIL comes with three different kinds of systems, namely:

  • Hitachi Process Robot – Arc Welding
  • Cartesian Arm – Assembly functions
  • Vision system without arm

AML:

AML (A Manufacturing Language) is a high level language based on sub routine, which is mainly implemented to manage RS / 1 Assembly Robot, End Effectors Active Force Feedback, and Cartesian Arm with hydraulic motors. The RS / 1 assembly robot incorporates a mini – computer (IBM Series/1), 192 KB memory, matrix printer, disk drive, display terminals, and keyboard. AML was developed by IBM Corporation for robot programming. An important reason for creating this language is to offer simple subsets and as well as powerful base language.

VAL:

VAL (Variable Assembly Language) Robot Programming Language is adopted mainly forUnimation Robots. As this language is designed with simple syntax, it is capable of illustrating the robot functions very easily. It includes two major tasks such as:

  • Program instructions are used to provide VAL programs in order to manage the robot functions.
  • Monitor commands are used to execute the user written programs.

AL:

AL robot language was developed in Artificial Intelligence Lab at Stanford University. It is the second generation language based on simultaneous Pascal. The programs are written and executed on PDP – 10. If the program is developed with high level code, then it should be written in Stanford Artificial Intelligence Language (SAIL). The AL system includes a big mainframe computer, and it generally runs on PDP 11/45. The PDP 11/45 implements one terminal, 128 KB RAM memory, and floating point processor. This language has got the capability to control two Stanford Scheinman and two PUMA 600 arms simultaneously.

RPL:

RPL robot language makes the improvement, checking, and correction of control algorithms very easy. It can be done even by an unskilled programmer like line foreman, production engineers, etc. The RPL programs are translated to interpretable code with the help of a compiler in SRI Robot Programming System. The programs are typically written in BLISS – 11 and run in RT – 11. The DECPDP – 10 is cross compiled into the LSI – 11 or PDP – 11. This robot language was designed in SRI International.

#language, #programming, #rail-aml-val-al-rpl, #robotics-2, #science, #technology

ARE YOU SMARTER THAN AN A.I. SEARCH ENGINE?

Google uses different signals to make sense of the searches, most of which are based upon the findings and judgment of staff. Nevertheless, RankBrain is the first system that is able to learn from previous mistakes.

Rankbrain converts words into mathematical entities called vectors that the computer can understand. The system then filters the results and provides links which it deems the most appropriate for each query.[1]

If RankBrain sees a word it does not recognize, the machine makes an educated guess based upon words that have a shared meaning. Each time it makes a guess, it monitors how the person responds to the results and makes adjustments in the filtering process.

The A.I. system has even managed to outcompete Google staff. Research engineers who developed the algorithm behind the software were asked to review some pages and guess which among the results they thought Google’s search engine would place on top. The staff guessed correctly 70 percent of the time, whereas RankBrain guessed correctly 80 percent of the time.[1]