Category Archives: Innovation

A to Z of Digital

19 Monday Jun 2017

Posted by in Automation, Cobotics, Digital, Innovation, IoT, Machine Learning, Open Source, Programming, Robotics, Security, Social Media, Tools, Wearable Tech

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ABCBeing Digital, Journey to Digital, Digital, 21st Century Humans, are phrases that are common place in many conversations around business and technology. But what does it mean to be “Digital”.  This is a wide subject to cover in a single blog post, so here is an A-Z of Digital to help.

I will break these down in further blog posts going into each subject in more detail.

A – Automation

The manual tasks of today should be the automated tasks of tomorrow, achieved using tools that interface with systems using API’s and commands that join them together to carry out tasks. From turning your heating on using an application to automatically carrying out a set of repetitive tasks to allow other more complex tasks to be undertaken.

B- Blockchain

A blockchain is a distributed database that is used to maintain a continuously growing list of records, called blocks. Each block contains a timestamp and a link to a previous block. A blockchain is typically managed by a peer-to-peer network collectively adhering to a protocol for validating new blocks. By design, blockchains are inherently resistant to modification of the data. (Wikipedia).

C – Cobots

Cobots are Robots that are adapted and programmed to work and interact with humans in various tasks and levels of activity. Imagine you’re working buddy is a cobot that can perform tasks hand in hand with you, take over if you need to do something else, increase its speed of completing the tasks, then sense your return and slow to the speed your working at.

D – Digital

“Digital” is an umbrella word that covers many different topics. There are many definitions available, but for me this is about how we unlock the capabilities available today and use them to better our lives and society. From a business view this is about growth and transforming through processes and technology. Being Digital is not necessarily about having the latest gadgets, but more around how you are using them and what you do.

E – Evolution

Evolution covers the advancements and new technologies that are being discovered and created every day.  There are lots of new ideas and products coming out of sites such as crowdfunding and crowdsourcing sites, some work however some do fail. These sites are worth tracking to see what developments are coming around the corner.

F – Fitness Trackers

Fitness trackers are probably one of the most common wearable that is available today and have been around for a number of years.  Trackers have developed to include a wide range of functionality including heart rate, blood pressure, location, altitude making the data useful to the health and medical industries to understand how we lead our lives.

G – Geolocation

Geolocation ties into a lot of the items in this list and provides a basis for providing location and tracking capabilities for devices and applications. It is also used to locate and pinpoint where users are. Some services cannot be consumed these days without agreeing to having this information shared with a site. The most common type of application in wide use is a Sat Nav.

H – Hybrid

Hybrid is used as a term to describe a mix of public and private services, such as a Hybrid Cloud where services can be mixed between traditional on premise/data centre services and cloud services, providing some control or orchestration layer across both to allow users to consume based on policy or requirements.

I – IoT

IoT (Internet of Things) is where physical things are connected by the internet using embedded sensors, software, networks and electronics. This allows the items to be managed, controlled and reported on. There are many reports estimating the number of IoT devices likely to be connected in the future, these are between 20 and 50 Billion devices by the year 2020.

J – Jacking

Jacking is a term used when you plug into something. Body Jacking is a growing area where the body is being used from generating power through movement to implanting chips to interact with the environment such as open a door or unlock a computer. This also covers Bioables which collect data on your body such as glucose levels using sensors that penetrate into the under the skin.

K – Knowledge

Understanding what is going on in your streams, market places and industries is a big task. Lots of information coming in on a daily basis – drinking from the fire hose, not able to consume it all. Creating your Personal Knowledge Management System will help navigate the sea of information and pick out what is key to your situation and what can be dropped.

L – Legal

With the increasing about of things interacting with our daily lives, the area of Legal and Security play a big part. There are a number of important questions to ask – Where is your data being stored and who actually owns it. Is your data secure and have you implemented all the right controls? What does Legistlation such as GDPR mean to you?

M – Machine Learning

Machine Learning (ML) allows a computer to learn and act without being explicitly programmed with that knowledge. An example of Machine Learning Algorithm is a web search engine that brings up a number of results based on your search criteria and shows which could be most relevant to what you are looking for.

N –  Networks

Networks and connectivity form the backbone of the systems in use today. Using a number of different types of network from Cellular (3G, 4G) to traditional networking and futures of 5G and Neural Networks speeding up how we create, consume and process data.

O – Organisation

Infrastructure as Code looks at making hardware being able to controlled at a code level, allowing Microservices and the ability to consume capability quickly. The next stage is the Organisation as Code. A great example of an Organsation as Code is Uber, building services and the supporting organisation in the cloud that allows it to be consumed anywhere and the drivers to login and become part of that organistation for the period that they are employed.

P – Programming

Everyone should learn to code. Learning to code (Programme) in a language like Scratch, Python, Java, C, etc. The ability to code will allow someone to understand how they can automate a task using tools and API’s.

Q – Quantum Computing

A computer which makes use of the quantum states of subatomic particles to store information (Dictionary). Quantum Computers are being developed with the ability to compute data at an exponential rate allowing for quick computing of complex data.

R – Robots

The vision of Robots has been around in early Science Fiction and are very much a reality today. From an automated manufacturing plant to a robot to help you shop and carry out tasks. The field of robotics is advancing bring in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to boost their capabilities and means to learn, self-think and complete tasks.

S – Social

Being social is not just around how you use the tools and what you tweet, but also what you don’t say and being Social Media savvy on your communications. There is a large number of social tools available with some well-known such as Twitter, Facebook and Linked in to those not so. It is also about how you organise your life with these tools and use them for productivity and security.

T – Twenty First Century Digital

The term 21st Century Digital applies to the current century and how you are using Digital to better your organisation and yourself. The LEF (Leading Edge Forum) has information that covers these two topics as the 21st Century Organisation and 21st Century Human.

U – Usability

The usability and user experience of devices is key.  Understandoing and being able to interact with devices is important. If a someone can’t use the application or device they may start looking for an alternative that they can use.

V – Visionables

Visionables moves the wearables market to technologies that help enhance our experiences through what we see. This covers things like Smart Glasses, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality and Mixed Reality.

W – Wearables

The field of wearables is expanding with more ways to attach sensors and record data about our daily lives. This typically covers anything that you can wear or attach to your body and in the main interfaces with a mobile to be the central data point, although many devices operate separately and can transmit data themselves.

X – Xperience

Xperience covers how we use these technologies and advancements to shape our lives and the effects that they have on them. How we have moved from the days of the first computer to today’s wearable and interactive society.

Y – Yottabyte

Yottabyte is a term used to define an amount of storage.  The prefix yotta indicates multiplication by the eighth power of 1000 or 1024 (Wikipedia). The amount of storage used today is seeing huge daily growth with systems currently using petabytes of data. The trends will increase the amount of storage needed to hold data.

Z – Zabeta

Zabeta is a noun meaning Tarrif or Tax. As we move to a more automated society there is a view point that automation and robots should be Taxed.

This is my current A to Z and some of the entries may be different in your version. Do you agree with the list? Whats in your “A to Z of Digital”?

 

Digital Tools- Voice Activated Assistants

20 Friday Jan 2017

Posted by in Digital, Innovation, Productivity, Tools

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blogger-336371_640Does the Voice Activated Assistant have a place in the business?   Yes it does. There are lots of voice activated assistants available to help us with our daily tasks. Some are built into mobile devices and some are purchased as specific items. The key is that they all respond to commands and can interact with other devices in our lives.

These devices are already within most business today, but may not being used to their full potential.

“<Insert Name of Assistant> turn on the lights” – providing that the assistant has been linked to the lighting system it will turn on the lights as requested.

Voice programs and activation have been around for along time, but have only recently become more mainstream with the advancements in the speech algorithms and technology to recognise the various dimensions and variants of the human voice. Also the ability to respond in a human voice. Brings back memories of playing around with Dr Spaitso (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Sbaitso) or watching the film War Games and wanting a talking computer “Would you like to play a game….”.

The biggest market at the moment is the consumer market with devices such as the Amazon Echo being used to connect a myriad of devices and services to build a connected home. There are a number of other assistants out there on devices that can do the same, such as Siri, Cortana, AVIC, and Google Now on the market. There are lots of others available as well.

There are also lots of projects and wishes to have an AI Assistant similar to J.A.R.V.I.S from Marvel’s Iron Man. Such a project is being carried out by Mark Zuckerberg. https://www.facebook.com/notes/mark-zuckerberg/building-jarvis/10154361492931634/

For some having devices around that are constantly listening can be a security issue, however in the main having a voice activated assistants are becoming more common place in every day lives.

“Google says 20 percent of mobile queries are voice searches” http://searchengineland.com/google-reveals-20-percent-queries-voice-queries-249917. This figure will be higher including all the assistants.

This trend is already seeing businesses building web based services to be voice friendly and allow access to data by looking at the type of natural questions someone may ask. Typically a voice search will take longer than a typed search as there is an additional processing step around the voice translation to search, however this is speeding up with the advancements in the programming and algorithms used.

Another example of a business application for voice assistants is where an operator is working with their hands and needs to get a part delivered or get answers to a question about the task they are doing.

In an office the assistant could be used to raise a ticket on the help desk AI, which in turn will try to solve the issue before raising a ticket for a human operator to assist.

Voice has been around for a long time and the future will see it mature to be a more personalised assistant with the ability to interact by recognising the user and have the ability to be called different names, removing the current standard activation names. Linking voice, business systems, data science, AI and machine learning will see a future of being able to ask natural language voice questions to the device about the business/data and obtain a natural language response from the system.

 

 

 

Self Driving Office Furniture

17 Wednesday Feb 2016

Posted by in Innovation, IoT, Robotics

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ChairsWatching the news this evening an interesting article was shown.

Long ago when I was at school at the end of the day we had to tidy the classroom and put the chairs onto our desks. What if the chairs could do this themselves? well put themselves under the desk in a tidy fashion at least.

Nissan have the answer to the under the desk part at least. They have recently created the Intelligent Parking Chair which puts it self back in place after using it.

You Tube Video of Chairs in action

This is based on technology from their driver-less cars, using sensors and cameras to move the chairs back to their position. The video shows people in different rooms clap their hands and the chairs move back. This illustrates applications that car manufacturers are starting to apply from their R&D into the driver-less car innovations. Maybe a different command is needed rather than clapping hands as it conjurers an interesting scenario following an announcement at the board table and everyone applauding.

Other innovations are already starting to be available for home and office, such as the Tesla Battery.

Linked to the IoT and secured properly, these R&D Innovations could bring some interesting revolutions to the home and office spaces.

Digital Scouting

25 Monday Jan 2016

Posted by in Development, Innovation, Programming, Tools

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digitalThere have been a series of new badges introduced by the Scouting movement. Two of these replace the traditional IT Staged Badge with a Digital Citizen and Digital Maker staged badge. These are aimed at giving young people skills in the digital age and help with STEM education.

These badges also teach young people to follow the Scouts digital manifesto:

The Scouts’ Digital Manifesto

  1. Use digital to learn and embrace new skills
  2. Share your adventures digitally and inspire others
  3. Know when to switch off, balancing screen time with outdoor activities
  4. Use digital skills to support your family and community
  5. Use digital to be creative
  6. Stay safe online and know the risks

Each of the badges provides 4/5 stages and builds on each stage. The badges can be earn’t from Beavers, through Cubs, Scouts and Explorers (ages 6 up to 18) so start with the basics, then build into writing apps.

These are a set of badges that I am looking forward to helping the local Scout Group out with. All I need to find for my local Scout Group is some spare Laptops or some Raspberry Pi’s…….Any offers welcome.

Perhaps there is a Scout group near you where you can help volunteer your skills with these badges.

Badge requirements

(Source: https://members.scouts.org.uk/supportresources/4282/digital-citizen-staged-activity-badge)

Digital Citizen – stage 1

How to earn your badge
Complete every task to achieve Stage 1, showing that you have thought about the potential risks and how to stay safe for each activity.

  1. Show that you can:
    • turn on and log into a computer
    • use a piece of software, for example email or a game
    • name the main parts of a computer system
    • connect a peripheral (for example a scanner or printer) to your computer and use it.
  2. Create a piece of digital media. It could be artwork, a photograph, music or animation.
  3. Use the internet for research:
    • decide on an area of interest
    • find three websites with content that matches your area of interest
    • collect relevant information by printing or saving as files.

Digital Citizen – stage 2

How to earn your badge
Complete every task to achieve Stage 2, showing that you have thought about the potential risks and how to stay safe for each activity.

  1. Plan and then create a piece of digital media. It could be artwork
    or a photograph that you alter using creative tools, music, animation, CAD (Computer Aided Design) or a 3D sculpture.
  2. Show that you can:
    • send or reply to someone with a short email and include an attachment
    • download photos or other media from a camera or smart card
    • open and save a document then share it using a cloud service (like Google Docs or Microsoft Sharepoint) or a USB stick
    • create a document that includes media that you’ve downloaded or copied from another source.
  3. Use the internet for research:
    • decide on an area of interest
    • use two different search engines to find three websites you think are reliable
    • collect information by printing the pages or saving  as PDF documents
    • select relevant information by copying text or an image and pasting into a document
    • display your findings as a poster or a short report.

Digital Citizen – stage 3

How to earn your badge
Complete every task to achieve Stage 3, showing that you have thought about the potential risks and how to stay safe for each activity.

  1. Plan, make, edit and share a piece of digital media. It could be
    artwork or a photograph that you alter using creative tools, music, animation, CAD (Computer Aided Design) or a 3D sculpture.
  2. Explore social networking sites that are appropriate for your age, then create an example of a good social network profile. Show that you know how to:
    • use anti-virus software
    • set up or adjust settings for accessibility
    • recover from a frozen programme or screen.
  3. Use the internet for research:
    • decide on a specific area of interest
    • use at least two different search engines, using operators like AND, NOT and OR in the search box
    • collect information by using bookmarks or favourites. Save URLs or use a social bookmarking tool like Diigo, Reddit, StumbleUpon, del.icio.us or digg.
    • select specific, reliable information relevant to your area of research
    • create a structured display of the information you have gathered. You could do this in a document, on a website or using a social tool such as Pinterest.
    • share your research with other people, for example by email, on the web, by MMS or social media.

Digital Citizen – stage 4

How to earn your badge
Complete every task to achieve Stage 4, showing that you have thought about the potential risks and how to stay safe for each activity.

  1. Create a portfolio of digital media. It might include artwork or a
    photograph that you alter using creative tools, music, animation, CAD (Computer Aided Design) or 3D sculpture.
  2. Create a film, video, stop-motion animation or podcast and share it using a suitable media sharing tool.
  3. Create a social network profile for your section, a band, local interest group or something similar. Alternatively you could make a small
    website that can host content, like the film you made in step 2, photos, poetry or information about your local area.
  4. Use the internet for research:
    • Choose a local, national, community or Scouting issue, or something from the news or current affairs.
    • Collect information from different sources, such as spreadsheets, databases, online news services and ‘open access’ data sources.
    • Put your information together in a structured way, for example grouping similar information. Make sure you know where each
      piece of information comes from.
    • Select the information you think is most appropriate and reliable.
    • Create a multi-page website with your information and make it public. Present your information in a variety of ways – you could
      use infographics, images or graphs.
    • Share your website with a wide audience.
    • Explain your sources of information and why you picked out what you did.
    • Get some feedback on what you have done and make changes to
      improve your website based on that feedback.

(Source: https://members.scouts.org.uk/supportresources/4283/digital-maker-staged-activity-badge)

Digital Maker – stage 1

How to earn your badge

  1. Connect computer peripherals or accessories, such as a screen and
    keyboard, and explain what job they do.
  2. Design a game:
    • Use role play to act out how your digital game would work. Play the game with a group of friends and change the rules.
    • Using paper, prototype a game and explain to someone how it works. You could video your explanation.
    • Evaluate and share your idea.
  3. Edit an existing website. You could change the design using a paper printout or software.
  4. Play a game with a friend where one of you acts the part of a robot and the other sends the robot commands. Record on paper what sort of commands worked best and which were hard for the ‘robot’ to follow.

Digital Maker – stage 2

How to earn your badge

  1. Connect two devices and exchange data between them using WiFi,
    Bluetooth or a cable.
  2. Show that you can use two different platforms or operating systems. They could be systems that run different devices such as computers,  tablets, phones or games consoles.
  3. Design a game:
    • Make a cartoon, animation or video of a game using a video camera or other equipment.
    • Create some pseudo code to explain how some parts of your game will work. Pseudo code is an instruction for the computer to follow, but is not written in a specific language.
    • Design a sequence of a game, like a whole level or an in-game puzzle.
  4. Design a single page website. You can use a design tool but writing HTML code would be fine too.
  5. Create a set of instructions for a programmable Robot, turtle or toy to
    follow. Games like Minecraft can help you do this.

Digital Maker – stage 3

How to earn your badge

  1. Show how to troubleshoot problems with computing equipment, such as hardware  devices and software updates.
  2. Make a prototype of a game using a suitable tool. It must include:
    • event conditions (when your game reacts to something that happens)
    • user movement controls
    • iteration (when your code or instructions are repeated)
    • variables (for scoring, health or counting things within the game).
  3. Build, design and publish a multipage website with working hyperlinks for navigation between the pages.
  4. Make a robot using prebuilt components.

Digital Maker – stage 4

How to earn your badge

  1. Set up a home network and connect it to the internet.
  2. Install or run an alternative operating system on a computer. Alternatively,  use a ‘Live DVD’ or USB stick.
  3. Design a game:
    • Build a game that includes progression and is fun and interesting to play.
    • Get someone else to play and evaluate it.
  4. Create a fully functioning website including linking to a database.
  5. Make a robot using a kit with components that respond to sensor input (for example, a robot that backs away from an object in its path).

Digital Maker – stage 5

How to earn your badge

  1. Install the software to run a web server and host a webpage on a  computer or other device. Tools like LAMP, WAMP or Google’s Webserver project for the Raspberry  Pi could help you. You can find these for free online.
  2. Make a game or app that serves a purpose. It should:
    • have a clear objective
    • be challenging for the user
    • have a clear sense of progression
    • keep a score
    • offer a reward to the user for playing (for example the score could unlock levels or icons).
  3. Make a website that serves a purpose, provides a good experience for the user and meets any legal requirements.
  4. Use off-the-shelf components to make your own robot that responds to the environment (for example a robot that reacts to light, its proximity to other objects or sound).

 

 

8 Free “For Dummies” books you should read in 2016

12 Tuesday Jan 2016

Posted by in Architecture, Cloud, Development, DevOps/OpsDev, Enterprise Architecture, Innovation, Programming, Security

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There has been a lot of the free smaller versions of the “For Dummies” books published recently. These are normally sponsored by a company to help promote a way of thinking/product/etc, however they do contain useful overviews and information on the subject that they are presenting on.

Here are my top 8 of these which should be on your reading list for the start of 2016. All are downloadable in PDF format*.

Agile for Dummies

API for Dummies

DevOps for Dummies

Micro-segmentation for Dummies

Next Generation Endpoint Security for Dummies

Software Defined Data Centres for Dummies

Software Defined Networking for Dummies

Software Defined Storage for Dummies

*You may need to sign up to receive some of these books.

Manual tasks of today should be the Automated tasks of tomorrow

11 Monday Jan 2016

Posted by in Architecture, Development, DevOps/OpsDev, Innovation, Open Source, Productivity, Programming, Tools

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“Manual tasks of today should be the Automated tasks of tomorrow”.

CogsThere are lots of Automation tools available to people and businesses today to automate tasks that are carried out in a manual way. The pace at which this is happening is varying based on Habits and Patterns that we use on a daily basis. Also because change is involved which sometimes causes its own set of anxieties and issues.

Back in 2012 Bruno Oliveir published a graph on G+ on Geeks and repetitive tasks, which, shows a view of time vs task and how as geek vs non geek might approach automation.

geeks-vs-nongeeks-repetitive-tasks

An alternative view was published by Jon Udell in 2012 – Another way to think about geeks and repetitive tasks which shows an alternative view adding in more steps to show repetition.

alternate-view-of-automation

xkcd has an interesting view on the subject that does ring true in some cases where something does not exist and needs to be created in order to Automate.

automation

You need to be careful that in spending lots of time in trying to automate a task, that you don’t may spend more time in developing automation than could have been spent actually doing the task.

To get over this an element that is missing from these graphs is reuse and blueprints/patterns. The chances are that someone else has had a go at doing what your about to automate so there may be something to reuse rather than developing something yourself.

There are lots of tools and code repositories available today with more being developed. It will depend upon what you are automating as what to use.

Some of the tools available include;

There are too many to list – lots of others available.

Using an Agile approach as well may reduce the length of the task size line on the graph as you do not need to boil the ocean to automate. Break up tasks into their components and you may find it easier to automate.

These tools are also bringing the geek and non geek lines together as Application’s and API’s make it easier for automation to be implemented. The plot of the graph changes into a repeatable process and in effect becomes a loop for both the geeks and non geeks.

Automate

So what will you automate today?

 

 

An A-Z Guide to being an Architect

07 Thursday Jan 2016

Posted by in Architecture, Big Data, Cloud, Development, DevOps/OpsDev, Enterprise Architecture, Governance, Innovation, IoT, Open Source, Productivity, Programming, Security, Social Media, Tools

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Back in 2008 Microsoft published An A-Z Guide to ABCBeing an Architect in their Architecture Journals.

Here is my take on an updated A to Z Guide to being an Architect. A couple of these may be similar.

A – Architect

Having the right level of skills as an Architect or engaging an Architect with the right level of skills will depend on the work needing to be undertaken. There are several types of Architect with some specialising in certain areas and others being multi domain skilled. The list below covers some of the different types of Architect- this is not an exhaustive list:

B – Blueprints

Following Blueprints and Patterns either published by vendors (such as the Microsoft Blueprints) or developed internally around your products and services will ensure repeat-ability and cost control around the design process.

Some examples showing different pattern types can be found at Architecture Patterns

C – Contextual Web Era

The up and coming 4th Platform area is the Contextual Web Era

  • 1st Platform – Mainframe Era
  • 2nd Platform – Client Server Era
  • 3rd Platform – Cloud Era
  • 4th Platform – Contextual Web Era

This is an up and coming era with lots of new innovation and developments. Keeping up with developments is key going forward for any architect to understand designs/solutions, art of the possible now and future, innovation and for developing roadmaps for solutions.

D – DevOps

To quote Wikipedia – “DevOps (a clipped compound of “development” and “operations”) is a culture, movement or practice that emphasizes the collaboration and communication of both software developers and other information-technology (IT) professionals while automating the process of software delivery and infrastructure changes”. Having knowledge of DevOps, OpsDev and Agile assist with Architecting a solution for a business understanding their practices and modes of interacting with technology to meet business requirements. A Good book on the subject of DevOps is “The Phoenix Project” by Gene Kim.

E – Enterprise Architecture

EA (Enterprise Architecture) is a blueprint that defines how a business can meet its objectives and strategy. This is achieved by conducting analysis, design, planning, recommendations and implementations through an Enterprise Architecture Framework

Enterprise Architecture Wikibook

F – Four Two Zero One Zero

42010 is the ISO Standard that most frameworks adhere to. Working to a Framework brings structure to your designs and life cycles.

There are a number of frame works available such as:

  • DoDAF
  • MoDAF
  • TOGAF
  • Zachman
  • Other Frameworks are available

Enterprise Architecture Wikipedia Book

G – Governance

Governance is an important part of architecture as it

  • Ensures Conformance
  • Controls Variance
  • Maintains Vitality
  • Enables Communication
  • Sets Direction
  • Issue Resolution
  • Provides Guidance and Prioritisation
  • Promotes Best Practise
  • Minimises Risk
  • Protects IT environments from tactical IT changes, project solutions, and strategic proposals that are not in an organisations global best interest
  • Controlling Technical Diversity, Over-Engineering and Unnecessary Complexity
  • Ensures projects can proceed quickly & efficiently
  • Control over IT spend
  • Quality Standards
  • Efficient and optimal use of resources and increase the effectiveness of IT processes

H – Hands On

It is important to be current and understand the technologies you are architecting. There are lots of options available to get your hands dirty using technology from using Cloud Servers to virtual machines on your compute device. There are other computing devices such as the Raspberry PI that provide a cheap alternative to standing up small farms to learn on.

I – IoT

IoT (Internet of Things) is where physical things are connected by the internet using embedded sensors, software, networks and electronics. This allows the items to be managed, controlled and reported on. My blog posts on IoT Device Security Considerations and Security Layers goes into more detail on this subject.

J – Juxtaposition

Juxtaposition is something an architect should be doing to compare things/items/artefacts etc.
noun;
1. an act or instance of placing close together or side by side, especially for comparison or contrast.
2.the state of being close together or side by side.

Source:http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/juxtaposition

K – Knowledge

I would class Skills with Knowledge. It is important as an Architect to ensure that your skills/knowledge are up to date and where you are unsure of a technology, you have a plan to address and skill up. Build a good CPD (Continuing Professional Development) plan and work towards completing it.

L – Language

With the move to cloud it is important to ensure your scripting skills are up to date as most cloud platforms use scripting to assist with the deployment of environments. This is also true of other DevOps/OpsDev applications. If you are unsure on what to learn this guide may help you – Learn a Programming Language – But which one?

M -Micro Segmentation

Micro Segmentation allows a business to use Networks, Compute and Storage to automate and deliver complex solutions by carving up and using the infrastructure. This segments part of the infrastructures to specific functions/tasks. It can also be used in a security context to segment networks, firewalls, compute and storage to increase security and reduce cyber attacks.  VMware have produced a book “Micro Segmentation for Dummies” that can be downloaded from here.

N – Next Generation

Next Generation refers to the next stage or development to something such as a new release of hardware or software. Next Generation is becoming a common term now to define products and artefacts, an example being Next Generation Firewalls.

O – Open Source

Open Source has been available for a long time with software such a Linux, however there is a bigger shift towards using Open Source and acceptance by businesses. Some examples of Open Source that is now mainstream within business include;

  • Ansible
  • Chef
  • Docker
  • Puppet

P – Performance

Performance can cover people as well as solutions / systems. Performance metrics should be set out at the inception of an engagement then monitored and reported on. This will be a factor in driving Continuous Improvement going forward as well as forecasting / planning for future upgrades and expansion.

Q – Quality

Quality is a huge subject and has a lot if standards governing it and how it affects all aspects of business and architecture. Knowing which standards and how they affect a solution will assist in the whole architecture lifecycle. There are also a number of tools available to help you;

  • Architecture Frameworks
  • ITIL
  • Six Sigma

There is also a level of pride and satisfaction in producing a quality solution and system achieving the objectives and requirements set out by the business.

R- Roadmap

Any architecture/solution should have a roadmap to set out its future. Roadmaps should include items such as:

  • Current state
  • Future state
  • Innovation
  • Upgrades / Releases
  • New Features / Functions
  • End of Life / Replacement

S – SMAC

SMAC stands for Social, Mobile, Analytics, Cloud. SMAC is an acronym that covers the areas and concepts when these four technologies are brought together to drive innovation in business. A good description of SMAC written by a colleague can be found here Acronyms SMAC.

T – Transformation

The majority, if not all systems will undergo a form of transformation. This may be in the form of a simple upgrade or to a complex redesign and migration to something else.

U – UX

UX (User eXperience) affects how people interact with your architecture / design and how they feel about it (emotions and attitudes). With the boom in apps and the nearing Contextual Web Era, UX is one of the most important factors to getting an architecture used. If your users don’t like the system they may find something else to use that they like.

V – Vision

Understanding the vision of your customer and their business is the driving factor for any architecture.

On working with your customer you should look to become a Trusted Advisor and also with your colleagues. A great book on the subject is The Trusted Advisor by David Maister. The book covers 3 main areas which discusses perspectives on trust, the structure of trust building and putting trust to work.

W – WWW

The internet is a key delivery mechanism for systems. Knowing how this works and key components to the internet should be understood such as:

  • IPV4 – IPV6
  • DNS
  • Routing
  • Connectivity
  • Security

X – X86

X86 – is a standard that every knows as its one of the most common platform types available.

Y – Year

Year is for the longevity of the solution you are designing. How many years are your expecting it to last What are the Business Requirements, statutory obligations, depreciation etc that need to be planned in. Consider things like End of Life, Maintenance and Upgrades on hardware and software from a solution point of view.

Z – Zero Defects

The best solution is the one with zero defects, but reaching this goal can be a challenge and can also consume a lot of expense. The best way to ensure Zero Defects is to use:

  • Best Practice
  • Reference Architectures
  • Blueprints/Patterns
  • Checklists
  • Reuse
  • Lessons Learnt

This is my current A to Z and some of the entries may be different in your version so “What is in your A to Z of being an Architect?”

I will look to write some further blog posts on the areas listed in this A to Z

Google I/O 2015 Event – Keynote Speech – Notes

28 Thursday May 2015

Posted by in Innovation, IoT, Open Source, Productivity, Programming, Security, Wearable Tech

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Here are some notes from the Google I/O 2015 – Keynote Speech

Android Overview

  • Android – Supporting over 400 OEMs and over 4000 Devices
  • Android Wear – 7 Models Supported
  • Android Auto – Supporting 35 Brands
  • Andriod TV – Sony, Sharp, Philips shipping with Android. Many more to come
  • 17m ChromeCast Devices – 1.5B Cast Button Presses

M Developer Preview

  • Back to Basics – Solved thousands of Bugs
  • Focus on Quality
  • Improving the core User Experience

App Permissions
– Simplifying App Permissions
– Apps asking permission when using that feature at first use rather than at install
– Faster to get users up and running – updates are seamless – app control process

Web Experience + App Links
– App Dev’s care about the experience that the users get
– Linking App to Web smoother
-Chrome Custom Tabs
– Apps can auto verify links at install time to verify the app owns the links it says it does

Mobile Pay
– Standardising Fingerprint Support

Power & Charging
– Doze Feature using activity to monitor when less power is needed in the device
– up to 2x longer in power length
– USB Type C charger to increase charging by 3x to 5x
– Can be charged or feature to act as a charger

Other new features
– Easier word selection
– Direct Share
– Simplified volume controls
Android Wear

  • Wearable Apps
  • Always on Apps
  • Wrist Gestures (such as scroll up/scroll down
  • Emoji Recogniser (draw emoji’s that are then recognised and correct emoji is displayed then sent)
  • Launcher (improved)

Project Brillo – Underlying IOT Operating System

  • Derived from Android
  • Minimal system requirements
  • Broad Silicon support
  • Easy to secure
  • Q3 Developer Preview

Weave – IOT Communcations layer where things can talk to each other

  • Common Language
  • Standard Schema’s
  • Developers APIs
  • Run with Brillo
  • Cross Platform
  • Q4 2015 full stack released

Now On Tap

  • Takes advantage of M Developer
  • Provides deeper interaction through access to Googles back end systems and deep machine learning networks
  • Enhanced user experience with access to information in real time

Google Photos

  • Built a new experience
  • Home for photos private and secure – available any device
  • Organise
  • Share

Chrome

  • Lite Search Results supporting more countries
  • Optimised search page results load 4 x faster, 80% less bytes and 80MB reduction in memory usage
  • Network Quality Estimator – to load pages to quality of bandwidth
  • Improved Offline Support – Saves of pages

YouTube

  • YouTube Offline – up to 48 Hours to view the video

Maps

  • Offline Maps
  • Offline Navigation – step by step

Developers

Developing Apps
Android Studio 1.3
– Improved Gradle build speed
– New memory profiler
– Support for C/C++

Polymer 1.0
– Elements to easily drop in features

iOS
– Cocoapods for SDK distribution

Testing
– Cloud Test Lab – Automate testing of mobile apps
– Runs test across top 20 devices across the world

Engage

– App Indexing (50 billion app links)
– Cloud Messaging (70 billion messages a day)
– will support iOS
– Topic subscription

Mobile Web
– Push Notfications
– Add to Homescreen

App Install Ads
– Universal App Campains – auto campain based on budget
– Measure App Install Ads

Google Play
– Conversion Funnel – Dashboard across app
– Play Store Listing Experiments
– Developer Pages – Own Google Play Home Page

Earn
– AdMob & Google Analytics
– AdMob Mediation – 40 Ad Networks

Google Cardboard – Over 1 million users

  • Improved viewer – screens up to 6 inches
  • Cardboard SDK – build for Android and iOS
  • Expeditions – Education Travel for Schools – Synchronized phones and tables

Google Balloons

  • 100+ days in the air
  • 10 Mbps connectivity
  • 500m accuracy
  • 4 x coverage area
  • Local partners

Google I/O Event

28 Thursday May 2015

Posted by in Cloud, Innovation, IoT, Programming

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Google’s I/O Event kicks off today https://events.google.com/io2015/Google10

Lots of session subjects available being streamed a few minutes behind the actual conference.

May 28, 8 PM

8:00 PM – 9:00 PM Self-paced Code Labs
8:30 PM – 9:00 PM Anyone can do it! Easy ways to evaluate your App’s Accessibility
8:30 PM – 9:00 PM Finding success with family-friendly apps on Play
8:30 PM – 9:00 PM Help your users live better with Google Fit
8:30 PM – 9:00 PM Improving urban mobility by connecting citizens
8:30 PM – 9:00 PM Mobile app install attribution with Google Analytics
8:30 PM – 9:00 PM Notifications, Interruptions and Volumes: Coming Attractions
8:30 PM – 9:00 PM Smarter approaches to app testing
8:30 PM – 9:00 PM Video chat for Web, iOS and Android

May 28, 9 PM
9:00 PM – 9:30 PM Apps for kids and families: Get discovered
9:00 PM – 9:30 PM Asking for permission
9:00 PM – 9:30 PM Containers to back your mobile app
9:00 PM – 9:30 PM Gaming on Android TV
9:00 PM – 9:30 PM Promote your mobile app in minutes
9:00 PM – 9:30 PM The Gold Standard: Accessible Web Components
9:00 PM – 9:30 PM reCAPTCHA: Tough on bots, Easy on Humans, Great on Mobile
9:00 PM – 10:00 PM Google Cloud Messaging 3.0
9:00 PM – 10:00 PM Material Design Reviews
9:00 PM – 10:00 PM Self-paced Code Labs
9:00 PM – 10:00 PM What’s new in Android
9:30 PM – 10:00 PM Achieving Maps zen on Android
9:30 PM – 10:00 PM Battery Performance & Tooling
9:30 PM – 10:00 PM Building a successful subscription business on Google Play
9:30 PM – 10:00 PM Getting your app on the road with Android Auto
9:30 PM – 10:00 PM Grow your (app) user base with Search
9:30 PM – 10:00 PM Make Believe
9:30 PM – 10:00 PM Mobile app quality leaps to the cloud
9:30 PM – 10:00 PM gRPC: Efficient and idiomatic communication libraries for cloud and mobile

May 28, 10 PM
10:00 PM – 10:30 PM Apps installing channels on TVs
10:00 PM – 10:30 PM Building location aware apps using the Android Location and Places APIs
10:00 PM – 10:30 PM Creating calendar events: Quick, easy, and good for your users
10:00 PM – 10:30 PM Designing for Driving
10:00 PM – 10:30 PM Designing for Google Cast
10:00 PM – 10:30 PM Get your app into the Google index
10:00 PM – 10:30 PM Leanback support library
10:00 PM – 10:30 PM Smarter and personalized device authentication with Smart Lock
10:00 PM – 10:30 PM What’s new in the Google Play Developer Console
10:00 PM – 11:00 PM Material Design Reviews
10:00 PM – 11:00 PM Self-paced Code Labs
10:00 PM – 11:00 PM Smarter monetization with AdMob and Analytics
10:00 PM – 11:00 PM What’s New in Android Development Tools
10:30 PM – 11:00 PM App discovery on Google Play
10:30 PM – 11:00 PM Building voice actions for your Android app
10:30 PM – 11:00 PM Data driven Android UI development
10:30 PM – 11:00 PM Optimizing your game’s first impression on Play
10:30 PM – 11:00 PM Project Volta: Android battery life
10:30 PM – 11:00 PM Simplifying app development using the wearable support library
10:30 PM – 11:00 PM The Earth in real time

May 28, 11 PM
11:00 PM – 11:30 PM Building a real-time app in 5 minutes with Firebase
11:00 PM – 11:30 PM Building fitness apps on wearable devices
11:00 PM – 11:30 PM Finding your way with the Google Maps SDK for iOS
11:00 PM – 11:30 PM Making great products for education
11:00 PM – 11:30 PM Material Design Reviews
11:00 PM – 11:30 PM Performance on RAILs
11:00 PM – 11:30 PM Rendering Performance & Tooling
11:00 PM – 12:00 AM Self-paced Code Labs
11:00 PM – 12:00 AM The next generation mobile web
11:00 PM – 12:00 AM What’s new in Google Play services
11:30 PM – 12:00 AM Chrome DevTools and RAIL
11:30 PM – 12:00 AM Espresso: UI-testing for Android
11:30 PM – 12:00 AM Expressing brand in Material
11:30 PM – 12:00 AM How to create apps that families love
11:30 PM – 12:00 AM Memory Performance & Tooling
11:30 PM – 12:00 AM Mobilizing the Maps Data APIs
11:30 PM – 12:00 AM Working with Nest to build a thoughtful home together

May 29, 12 AM
12:00 AM – 12:30 AM Data driven online learning with Course Builder
12:00 AM – 12:30 AM Kickstart your web app with Web Starter Kit
12:00 AM – 1:00 AM Growing games with Google
12:00 AM – 1:00 AM Making apps context aware: Opportunities, tools, lessons and the future
12:00 AM – 1:00 AM Material Now
12:00 AM – 1:00 AM Self-paced Code Labs
12:30 AM – 1:00 AM AdMob Cross-platform Showdown
12:30 AM – 1:00 AM Network Performance & Tooling

May 29, 2 AM
2:30 AM – 6:00 AM After Hours May 29, 5 PM
5:00 PM – 5:30 PM Adaptive UI with Material Design
5:00 PM – 5:30 PM Android application architecture
5:00 PM – 5:30 PM Designing games for Google Cast
5:00 PM – 5:30 PM Real-time analytics for mobile and IoT
5:00 PM – 5:30 PM Security Key: Make your login unphishable
5:00 PM – 5:30 PM Unit testing on Android
5:00 PM – 5:30 PM Video actions and movie reviews
5:00 PM – 6:00 PM Polymer and modern web APIs: In production at Google scale
5:00 PM – 6:00 PM Self-paced Code Labs
5:00 PM – 6:00 PM Smarter user acquisition with App Indexing, AdWords and Google Analytics
5:00 PM – 6:15 PM A little badass. Beautiful. Tech and human. Work and love. ATAP.
5:30 PM – 6:00 PM Bringing Material Design to life on Android
5:30 PM – 6:00 PM Building a successful subscription business on Google Play
5:30 PM – 6:00 PM Creating games with the Google Cast SDK
5:30 PM – 6:00 PM Get users into your app with Google’s newest identity tools
5:30 PM – 6:00 PM Grow your app via new word-of-mouth tools from Google
5:30 PM – 6:00 PM Integrating with Global Search on Android TV
5:30 PM – 6:00 PM Material Design year one
5:30 PM – 6:00 PM Push notifications on the Web: Re-engaging your users

May 29, 6 PM
6:00 PM – 6:30 PM Android Developer Tools: Deep dive into Performance & Build Tools
6:00 PM – 6:30 PM Android Testing Support Library: The next generation of Android Testing APIs
6:00 PM – 6:30 PM Anyone can do it! Easy ways to evaluate your App’s Accessibility
6:00 PM – 6:30 PM Finding success with family-friendly apps on Play
6:00 PM – 6:30 PM Get your app into the Google index
6:00 PM – 6:30 PM Introduction to light-weight Material design
6:00 PM – 6:30 PM Mobile app install attribution with Google Analytics
6:00 PM – 6:30 PM Mobile games to the big screen with Google Cast
6:00 PM – 7:00 PM Project Tango – Mobile 3D tracking and perception
6:00 PM – 7:00 PM Self-paced Code Labs
6:00 PM – 7:00 PM Tech for a better world, faster: A discussion with Google.org’s social innovators
6:30 PM – 7:00 PM How to create apps that families love
6:30 PM – 7:00 PM Lovefield – Simple, offline SQL-like data store for the web
6:30 PM – 7:00 PM Promote your mobile app in minutes
6:30 PM – 7:00 PM Reach more gamers by going local
6:30 PM – 7:00 PM Smarter approaches to app testing

May 29, 7 PM
7:00 PM – 7:30 PM App discoveryon Google Play
7:00 PM – 7:30 PM Google Cloud Messaging new APIs deep dive
7:00 PM – 7:30 PM Grow your (app) user base with Search
7:00 PM – 7:30 PM Improving urban mobility by connecting citizens
7:00 PM – 7:30 PM Offline apps with Polymer and Service Worker
7:00 PM – 7:30 PM Recommendations with Android TV
7:00 PM – 7:30 PM Unleashing the power of Android Backup
7:00 PM – 8:00 PM Designing for virtual reality
7:00 PM – 8:00 PM Firebase: An overview
7:00 PM – 8:00 PM Helping Moonshots Survive Contact with the Real World
7:00 PM – 8:00 PM Material Design Reviews
7:00 PM – 8:00 PM Self-paced Code Labs
7:30 PM – 8:00 PM Building location aware apps using the Android Location and Places APIs
7:30 PM – 8:00 PM Building voice actions for your Android app
7:30 PM – 8:00 PM Containers to back your mobile app
7:30 PM – 8:00 PM Gaming on Android TV
7:30 PM – 8:00 PM Grow your app via new word-of-mouth tools from Google
7:30 PM – 8:00 PM Leanback support library
7:30 PM – 8:00 PM Project Volta: Android battery life
7:30 PM – 8:00 PM Smarter and personalized device authentication with Smart Lock

May 29, 8 PM
8:00 PM – 8:30 PM Achieving Maps zen on Android
8:00 PM – 8:30 PM Building fitness apps on wearable devices
8:00 PM – 8:30 PM Make Believe
8:00 PM – 8:30 PM Rendering Performance & Tooling
8:00 PM – 8:30 PM Simplifying app development using the wearable support library
8:00 PM – 8:30 PM The Earth in real time
8:00 PM – 8:30 PM Video chat for Web, iOS and Android
8:00 PM – 8:30 PM What’s new in the Google Play Developer Console
8:00 PM – 9:00 PM Ignite
8:00 PM – 9:00 PM Self-paced Code Labs
8:30 PM – 9:00 PM Android Developer Tools: Deep dive into Performance & Build Tools
8:30 PM – 9:00 PM Designing for Driving
8:30 PM – 9:00 PM Expressing brand in Material
8:30 PM – 9:00 PM Finding your way with the Google Maps SDK for iOS
8:30 PM – 9:00 PM Memory Performance & Tooling
8:30 PM – 9:00 PM Optimizing your game’s first impression on Play
8:30 PM – 9:00 PM The Gold Standard: Accessible Web Components

May 29, 9 PM
9:00 PM – 9:30 PM Android Testing Support Library: The next generation of Android Testing APIs
9:00 PM – 9:30 PM Apps installing channels on TVs
9:00 PM – 9:30 PM Asking for permission
9:00 PM – 9:30 PM Battery Performance & Tooling
9:00 PM – 9:30 PM Google Cloud Messaging new APIs deep dive
9:00 PM – 9:30 PM Google Developer Expert on hidden treasures within Google Play services
9:00 PM – 9:30 PM Mobilizing the Maps Data APIs
9:00 PM – 9:30 PM Push notifications on the Web: Re-engaging your users
9:00 PM – 10:00 PM Developers connecting the world through Google Play
9:00 PM – 10:00 PM Developing for the living room with Google
9:00 PM – 10:00 PM Improve your Android app’s accessibility
9:00 PM – 10:00 PM Material Design Reviews
9:00 PM – 10:00 PM Self-paced Code Labs
9:30 PM – 10:00 PM AdMob Cross-platform Showdown
9:30 PM – 10:00 PM Adaptive UI with Material Design
9:30 PM – 10:00 PM Google Developer Expert on growth hacking on a shoestring
9:30 PM – 10:00 PM Integrating with Global Search on Android TV
9:30 PM – 10:00 PM Introduction to light-weight Material design
9:30 PM – 10:00 PM Network Performance & Tooling
9:30 PM – 10:00 PM Security Key: Make your login unphishable

May 29, 10 PM
10:00 PM – 10:30 PM Building a real-time app in 5 minutes with Firebase
10:00 PM – 10:30 PM Chrome DevTools and RAIL
10:00 PM – 10:30 PM Espresso: UI-testing for Android
10:00 PM – 10:30 PM Get users into your app with Google’s newest identity tools
10:00 PM – 10:30 PM Help your users live better with Google Fit
10:00 PM – 10:30 PM Lovefield – Simple, offline SQL-like data store for the web
10:00 PM – 10:30 PM Making great products for education
10:00 PM – 10:30 PM Scale globally: Developer guidelines for Emerging Markets
10:00 PM – 11:00 PM Android Wear: Your app and the always-on screen
10:00 PM – 11:00 PM Android best practices for data transparency
10:00 PM – 11:00 PM Material Design Reviews
10:00 PM – 11:00 PM Self-paced Code Labs
10:30 PM – 11:00 PM Apps for kids and families: Get discovered
10:30 PM – 11:00 PM Data driven Android UI development
10:30 PM – 11:00 PM Designing for Google Cast
10:30 PM – 11:00 PM Getting your app on the road with Android Auto
10:30 PM – 11:00 PM Kickstart your web app with Web Starter Kit
10:30 PM – 11:00 PM Performance on RAILs
10:30 PM – 11:00 PM Real-time analytics for mobile and IoT
10:30 PM – 11:00 PM Unit testing on Android
10:30 PM – 11:00 PM reCAPTCHA: Tough on bots, Easy on Humans, Great on Mobile

May 29, 11 PM
11:00 PM – 11:30 PM Android application architecture
11:00 PM – 11:30 PM Bringing Material Design to life on Android
11:00 PM – 11:30 PM Designing games for Google Cast
11:00 PM – 11:30 PM Material Design Reviews
11:00 PM – 11:30 PM Notifications, Interruptions and Volumes: Coming Attractions
11:00 PM – 11:30 PM Offline apps with Polymer and Service Worker
11:00 PM – 11:30 PM Scale globally: Developer guidelines for Emerging Markets
11:00 PM – 11:30 PM Unleashing the power of Android Backup
11:00 PM – 11:30 PM Video actions and movie reviews
11:00 PM – 12:00 AM Democratizing Education
11:00 PM – 12:00 AM Developing with Google on iOS
11:00 PM – 12:00 AM Engineering for the Stratosphere – Presented by Women Techmakers
11:00 PM – 12:00 AM Self-paced Code Labs
11:30 PM – 12:00 AM Creating calendar events: Quick, easy, and good for your users
11:30 PM – 12:00 AM Data driven online learning with Course Builder
11:30 PM – 12:00 AM Material Design year one
11:30 PM – 12:00 AM Mobile app quality leaps to the cloud
11:30 PM – 12:00 AM Mobile games to the big screen with Google Cast
11:30 PM – 12:00 AM Reach more gamers by going local
11:30 PM – 12:00 AM Recommendations with Android TV
11:30 PM – 12:00 AM gRPC: Efficient and idiomatic communication libraries for cloud and mobile

May 30, 12 AM
12:00 AM – 12:30 AM Creating games with the Google Cast SDK
12:00 AM – 12:30 AM Working with Nest to build a thoughtful home together
12:00 AM – 1:00 AM Self-paced Code Labs
12:00 AM – 1:00 AM Speechless at I/O

Faster Smaller Raspberry Pi Cluster

18 Saturday Apr 2015

Posted by in Innovation, IoT, Programming, Raspberry Pi

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Following on from my blog “Race to the largest Raspberry Pi Cluster“, James J. Guthrie has built a 3 node cluster out of Raspberry Pi 2’s using 3 nodes, out performing the 64 node cluster.

The Iridis Pi has a peak CPU performance benchmark was around 1 GIGAFLOPS (floating point operations per second)

The cluster presented here is made of 3 second generation Pi’s (nodes) and has a peak performance of over 3 GIGAFLOPS.

A short paper on the cluster can be found at the link below.

http://personal.strath.ac.uk/james.guthrie/jabopi/

PI