Results of the past week on Habré. In this digest - the most important, interesting and high-profile events that we spoke about from November 22 to 29. Google developed a “explainable” AI, Stadia still won’t take off, and the Translator Toolkit will close soon. Scientists are probably close to very reliable drives based on ferroelectric capacitors, Visionox displays can be rolled up, and on the Web they found an Elasticsearch server with 1.2 billion records in the public domain. In the United States, Durov was summoned to court, in Russia, the maximum amount of the fine for storing user data outside the country was determined, and Samsung will update 30 smartphone models to Android 10.
Top
1. Google showed an "explainable" AI (Explainable AI)
The company introduced AI in London, which helps users understand exactly how the machine learning model came to one or another of its conclusions during data processing. The algorithm was expanded using special explanatory modules that quantify the contribution of each data element to the output of a machine learning model. This information, by the way, can be used to further adapt AI models.
2. Measured the distribution of electric potential in a ferroelectric capacitor
MIPT scientists, together with their American and German colleagues, were able to measure the distribution of electric potential inside the so-called ferroelectric capacitor. These hafnium oxide capacitors may be used as storage devices in the future. New generation devices will be more reliable in operation and will be able to withstand hundreds of thousands of times more rewriting cycles than traditional flash drives. In the meantime, HP has published a firmware patch for its HPE SSDs . It is designed to solve the critical problem of data loss and disk failure for about 3 years and 9 months of work. The patch was released for HPE SAS SSD drives with firmware up to version HPD8. The update is critical, and it is necessary if you want to save your data.
3. AMOLED learned to fold into a tube
Visionox, which makes displays for the Xiaomi Mi Mix Alpha and Xiaomi Mi Note 10, showed prototypes of its new screens. New - AMOLED flexible panel that rolls up into a roll . It is not clear whether the giants of the market will be interested in a new form factor. Here is the future flagship Samsung Galaxy S11, apparently, will have a regular screen from 6.63 inches to 6.7 inches and with bends on the sides. But Google has announced Ambient Mode for its voice assistant, which turns Android-smartphones and tablets into a kind of smart displays. The mode is activated at the moment when the user puts the device on charge. It gives quick access to some functions on the locked screen - photos from Google Photos albums, calendar reminders, music control panels and connected smart home devices, as well as Google Assistant.
Failure
1. The data of a billion users in the public domain
Information security experts Vinnie Troy and Bob Dyachenko discovered an open Elasticsearch server with 1.2 billion (!) Records totaling 4 TB in the network . It is located on the Google Cloud Service site. The server appeared in the public domain on October 4. Troy and Dyachenko discovered a collection of four databases with public data of hundreds of millions of people, collected directly or obtained from profiles of social networks and platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Github and LinkedIn). Almost 50 million unique phone numbers and 622 million unique email addresses were stored on the server.
2. Google does not provide 4K-image in Stadia
Google promised that the Stadia streaming service will be able to play video games in 4K quality and 60 frames per second with a reliable Internet connection and a subscription to Stadia Pro. However, many users said that today some games on Stadia do not reach these indicators . So, a review of the game Red Dead Redemption 2 on Stadia showed that the game actually works with a resolution of 2560x1440, which is then scaled to 4K using Chromecast Ultra. Google shifted responsibility to Stadia developers: “We hope that developers can improve their games on Stadia and will do so in the future.”
3. Durov was summoned to a US court to testify
The Southern District Court of New York summoned Pavel Durov, Telegram Vice President Ilya Perekopsky and company employee Shyam Parekh to testify about the issue of Gram digital tokens suspended in October. They should appear on January 7 or 8, 2020 in “a place agreed by the parties”. Interrogations of Perekopsky and Parekh will be held on December 16 and 10 in London. A month later, the fate of the Gram token, which the SEC considers an unregistered security, will be decided in a court between Telegram and the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
Awaiting
1. Translator Kit will be closed soon
Since December 4, Google closes the service Translator Tools or Google Translator Toolkit. Users can upload their data from it up to this point. Some time after the termination of the service, the data can also be downloaded from Google Takeout.
2. Determined the size of the fine for storing user data outside the Russian Federation
Parliament approved a bill fixing the size of the fine for operators collecting personal data of Russians who store this data outside of Russia. The maximum amount for legal entities for repeated violation of the law will be 18 million rubles. The document was handed over to the president for signature, after which it will immediately enter into force.
3. Samsung will upgrade 30 smartphones to updated Android 10
The Israeli unit of Samsung said that the company plans to update almost 30 models of smartphones to an improved operating system Android 10 in firmware One UI 2.0. The first to update the Galaxy S10 Series, Galaxy Note 10 Series and Galaxy Note 9 Series in January. In April, the new OS will receive smartphones series Galaxy A and Galaxy J, Galaxy S9, as well as some tablets Galaxy Tab.
Fun: farmers experiment with VR
One of the farms in the Moscow region conducted an experiment to study the impact of virtual reality on the productivity of cows . The developers adapted human VR glasses to the head of a cow and created a summer field simulation program for animals. During tests of VR glasses, experts noticed that the anxiety in the cows decreased and the herd’s overall emotional mood improved. Now it remains to study the effect of VR technology on milk yield.
Fiction: how to grow a developer in a small town
A developer from Bryansk shared his experience of how, while living in a small town, he was able to release a number of programming books, become a guest of foreign podcasts and travel to various conferences as a speaker.