Month: June 2014

I don’t think so.

The Turing Test is supposed to be a test, that, if beaten, means that we have fully achieved “real” artificial intelligence. The chatbot named “Eugene Goostman” is not it! (In my humble opinion.) The chatbot has to be able to fool 30%, or more, of the human participants in the conversation. Supposedly, “Eugene” did that. Uh huh. Does it count if the humans are of below par intelligence, and can’t recognize a chatbot when they are typing back and forth?

See what Ray Kurzweil said when asked about the test:

https://www.kurzweilai.net/response-by-ray-kurzweil-to-the-announcement-of-chatbot-eugene-goostman-passing-the-turing-test

You see what I mean.

Some have called Elon Musk, “the real world Tony Stark,” because he does radical stuff like this!

Tesla goes ‘open source’ with patents

By: Susan Decker, Alan Ohnsman and Mark Clothier – Bloomberg News

“Washington – Elon Musk wants to apply the contrarian style that made him millions of dollars from PayPal and billions from rocket ships and electric cars, and revolutionize the litigious world of patents.

Tesla Motors became a rarity among automakers when Musk Thursday pledged that inventions on his electric cars and batteries will be free for anyone to use ‘in good faith.’ The move may speed the adoption of technology that Musk needs to make his fledging line of cars more than a luxury niche.

Patents are a trade-off that give companies the right to block others from using a specific technology in exchange for making the idea public so others can analyze and build on it. The alternatives are to keep the technology a trade secret or, as in the case of the Linux computing system, make the information available to everyone. Tesla is adopting a third way – continue to patent, but let the public use it at will.

‘The more people that use the technology, the more valuable the market,’ said Zorina Khan, an economics professor at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, and author of ‘The Democratization of Invention.’

The move shows Musk positioning Palo Alto, California-based Tesla for a more open relationship with the global auto industry than the one-off projects it’s had with investors Toyota and Daimler to supply battery packs and motors. He met this week with executives from Bayerische Motoren Werke and said he recommended that BMW collaborate by using Tesla’s rapid- charge system and even build its own battery factory.

Tesla has more than 160 issued U.S. patents for things like a system to protect battery packs from overcharging and an improved rotor construction in an electric motor, according to the website of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

While Musk’s strategy is not unique to the technology industry – IBM employed it nine years ago – it’s an unusual move for automakers. Car companies ‘traditionally lock their intellectual property in a vault and steal everyone else’s,’ said Erik Gordon, a professor at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan.

The other automakers, which have so far treated Tesla as an outsider, may actually be receptive to Musk’s plan, according to Gordon.

Taking an ‘open source’ approach can lead to others adding to the technology and cross-licensing, as well as ‘greater goodwill’ and benefits ‘from the specialized skills of a competitor,’ Khan said.

Linus Torvalds, who created the Linux computer operating system, made it available for free to anyone. That’s led to its growth, including its role in the creation of Google Inc.’s Android operating system. Google in turn made Android free and found a way to make money from it through mobile advertising. Android is now the world’s most popular operating system for mobile devices.

Tesla is reserving the right to go after infringers in limited circumstances. Musk said his company would use ‘common sense’ in deciding whether to assert its patents – such as a carmaker that uses the inventions to confuse consumers into thinking the car is a Tesla. It also could strike back should Tesla ever be accused of using another company’s technology.

‘Somebody can’t go and use a whole bunch of our patents but then sue us for using one of theirs,’ Musk said ‘That seems like it wouldn’t be a very nice thing to do.’

The 42-year-old billionaire cited the patent battles between Apple and Samsung Electronics over smartphones and tablet computers as something the car industry should avoid.

‘Who’s really benefiting there?’ he said. ‘You’ve got all these depositions and dirty laundry getting aired and it’s a big distraction for the management team.'”

(Cross-posted from VirtZine) – The latest version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux is out! Check out the new features (especially the inclusion of Docker technology!)

Announcing the General Availability of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7!

Red Hat Custoemr Portal Announcement – “Red Hat is pleased to announce the release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7, available today on the Red Hat Customer Portal. Built to meet modern datacenter demands as well as next-generation IT requirements, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 lays the foundation for the open hybrid cloud and serves enterprise workloads across converged infrastructures.

While providing the agility, flexibility and stability to meet new requirements head-on without increasing complexity, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 also delivers military-grade security, mission-critical reliability, and the performance and ease-of-use capabilities to efficiently manage and run your environment.

Key Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 features include:

• Lightweight, portable Docker containers run applications at near bare-metal speed providing isolation and leveraging SELinux for increased security.
• Improved filesystem enhancements including a default XFS filesystem that supports up to 500TB, improvements to NFS 4 adding extended attributes with SELinux labels, and LVM supporting whole volume snapshots with rollback.
• Improved interoprability with Microsoft Active Directory domains, allowing Red Hat Enterprise Linux clients to integrate more easily within heterogeneous datacenters.
• Centralized management of processes, services, security, and other resources using systemd allowing enhanced, granular control of your system.
• Performance tool utilities such as TUNA, Thermostat, and Performance Co-Pilot to allow you to monitor, measure, and resolve application problems.
• New management tools like OpenLMI help to create uniformity and standardized administration across systems by managing storage, network, and high-availability resources.
• Refined control over system subscriptions allows you to set support priority, audit systems reliably, and see how you’re using your subscriptions at a glance.

Along with the release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7, we’re making improvements to ensure that customers have a better product experience in our Customer Portal.”

As a Linux pro, this was an article that stroked MY ego! Maybe it will make YOUR day too!

The sought after Linux professional

OpenSource.com By: Shawn Powers – “There’s no such thing as ‘just a Linux sysadmin,’ which is what makes Linux professionals so incredibly valuable. We’ve all been hearing that the demand for Linux professionals is ‘at its highest ever!!!’ for years. In recent years, though, it hasn’t just been Linux nuts like me saying it. You may reference the 2014 Linux Jobs Report by The Linux Foundation and assume they’re biased, but a quick search over at Monster.com shows that the demand for Linux professionals is a real thing.

Linux has been around for decades, so why the sudden interest?

Flexibility.

Sure, I mean Linux is flexible, but more than that, Linux System Administrators are flexible. It’s not news to anyone that Linux is gaining popularity in part due to its dominance in the cloud and the datacenter. And certainly that large install base needs sysadmins who understand Linux and how it works. More importantly, however, companies need sysadmins who can make those cloud based services work with their particular internal needs.

If you need someone to integrate your homegrown database system with a cloud based Linux infrastructure, you need a Linux professional. Take my personal experience when transitioning from a Linux-centric server room to a Microsoft dominated company. My certifications are strictly network and Linux-based (specifically CCNA & LPIC/Linux+). Still, I was confident applying for a management position in a database department that used 100% Microsoft SQL, even though I’d never touched MSQL in my life. And I never claimed to do so in my interviews, because I understand conceptually what needs to be done. I have first-hand experience with integrating various operating systems, so learning the nuances of Microsoft-specific procedures didn’t worry me at all.

I got the job, and after a year I can assure you my lack of first-hand experience didn’t affect my ability to lead a team or make technical decisions. My point? Linux users tend to be a cut above the rest, not because they’re inherently smarter or better, but because Linux requires you to understand what you’re doing on a level that’s not required with Windows. That conceptual understanding is invaluable, and interviewers know it. As Linux users and pros, we’ve been learning to integrate into heterogenous environments our entire careers. It’s easy to find a strictly Microsoft shop, but 100% Linux? That’s almost unheard of. That means as Linux administrators, we have been forced to understand multiple systems in order to do the simplest of tasks. Think about it, every Linux user in the world would be able to configure a network connection in Windows 7. If they didn’t know how, it would be really easy to figure out. Then, take a Windows administrator and ask them to set up a static IP on a Debian server? That’s far less common.

What makes Linux professionals valuable

In order to fill those desperately needed Senior Administrator positions, Linux folks need to have a firm grasp of what Linux can and can’t do. Is scaling to the cloud a wise move? Will database latency cause transaction errors if queries take place over the Internet? Can we use a cloud service like Amazon, or do we have to use Azure due to Microsoft specific code?

In order to answer those tough questions, not only must a sysadmin be comfortable in their area of expertise, but they must have understanding and experience in cross-platform solutions. Like I pointed out earlier, this pretty much describes what it means to be a Linux professional! Nobody likes hiring or even working with an arrogant Linux zealot. Unfortunately, it’s easy to get an air of superiority. The key to being hirable (and not being a jerk) is to turn that arrogance into fearlessness. Don’t call your potential employer stupid for implementing a Microsoft virtualization platform, tell them how excited you are to get your hands on it so you can learn what advantages and disadvantages it offers.

Who knows, maybe you’ll eventually replace their entire system with open source—but you won’t even have the chance if you start off by insulting them.

What if you have not been using Linux your entire career? What if you haven’t had a career yet at all? That’s the beauty of open source. Nothing, I repeat, nothing about working with Linux is a secret. By design, every bit of information is available freely on the Internet. You can download multiple distributions, countless open source applications, and enough documentation to make your eyes cross. All for free. Certainly there are advantages to professional training when it comes to learning Linux, but not because trainers have access to anything not already available to anyone.

Linux and open source software, coupled with the Internet, have leveled the playing field when it comes to learning and growing as a professional. I’m a Linux professional today because in my early 20s I couldn’t afford to study anything else. Today, I couldn’t be happier with those humble beginnings. Linux has changed my life, and if the studies and job searches are any indication, it can change yours too.”

Hold the presses… I am hearing that YAC MAY be malware… I am researching now. In the meantime, do not install it! I JUST ran Malwarebytes Ant-Malware, and it turned up nothing on the PC I installed it on… but, I am still checking.

Pro and Con comments I have found on YAC:

Pros:

“I used it for a while and it is nice and safe program. I uninstalled it due to there being no apparent way to disable the HIPs module. The HIPs module is set to automatically deny suspicious actions when you haven’t chosen whether to allow or deny the action after I think 30 seconds. I’d prefer there to be no countdown and for the prompt to stay there until clicked.

But apart from that it is excellent.”

“It’s not malicious, but because it’s not well known as of yet there is little information to be found about it.”

“(I) tried Norton and McAfee but was not thrilled with the mediocre results so out of desperation downloaded YAC. I find it to be as effective as any of the programs that you pay for and will continue to use it as I like its’ simple format. It’s a good security program and is so easy to clean/optimize/scan for malware. I don’t know what all the fuss is about. Maybe because it’s free some people think it must be a scam. I like it.”

“A school mate from Brazil told me that YAC is a useful utility developed by a company from his country. Certainly I know what it is, so we began to discuss on this program. He said every Brazilian is proud of YAC, because it is useful, helpful and free. In my opinion, this program had a space for improvement.”

Cons:

https://botcrawl.com/remove-yac-virus/

https://manual-removal.com/remove-yet-another-cleaner-yac-and-search-yac-mx-redirect/

MORE NEWS:

I uninstalled YAC easily, with no hassle, they said “Goodbye, what did we do?” and all that… but, there was no weird surprises. It seems harmless to me so far… but, I am still researching…