It’s one of the fundamental considerations of any defense agency; how to track the readiness of people and things. Often, this process is less than streamlined, encompassing everything from paper-and-pen checklists to enormous spreadsheets filled out by hand. Given the room for error inherent in any manual process, using artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud-enabled tools to track readiness can help defense agencies get a more accurate understanding of their vehicles, people, and equipment, make more informed decisions, and save a significant amount of time.

In defense agencies, keeping vehicles and equipment in good working order can mean a lot more than simple usability. The fact is, lives depend on functional, mission-capable equipment. When the stakes are this high, using leading-edge, AI-driven technology to streamline and standardize the process of readiness tracking can have a huge impact.

Imagine that a vehicle maintenance checklist, which makes sure parts are changed at specific times, could be completely supplanted by intelligent, data-driven technology that enables the vehicle itself to raise alerts about when parts need to be changed. It’s a conditions-based approach to keeping vehicles well-maintained, rather than relying on manufacturers’ time-based recommendations. This is exactly the type of innovative reimagining of readiness that can help defense agencies maximize the number of mission-capable vehicles and equipment at their disposal in a modern, digitally-driven environment.

These same innovative technologies can also reduce the number of personnel required to maintain vehicle and equipment readiness. Indeed, most defense organizations maintain large staff solely devoted to tracking data and maintaining vehicles and equipment. Advanced technologies can provide huge savings in this area. Additionally, there are equally huge time-and-resource savings that could be gained from embracing modern, intelligent technology in this space.

It’s an exciting prospect: what if, instead of focusing exclusively on tracking data and maintenance, those workers could apply their human cognition to other tasks? This can save time and money, but there is also accuracy to be considered. Manually inputting data always leads to some amount of human error, something that could be significantly lessened with the use of AI. The goal is to increase operational efficiency and minimize the speculation involved in traditional methods of readiness tracking.

It’s not just vehicles and equipment that fall under the purview of intelligent readiness solutions. Personnel brings a host of data points that tech-savvy organizations can use to gain insights, track correlations, and better predict elements such as the likelihood of reenlistment. Empowered with these insights, defense agencies can make more accurate and timely decisions.

There is also the potential to use AI and cloud-enabled technology to create more modern, intelligent training scenarios, helping personnel prepare better for their missions. HoloLens can offer immersive training, where personnel could experience a full-scale, interactive learning environment. It’s an exciting idea—mixed-reality could facilitate powerful, experiential learning and better prepare personnel for the day-to-day reality of their jobs.

In addition to immersive training, HoloLens could provide solutions for another issue many defense agencies face: the scarcity of highly trained technicians. Even when senior technicians are few and far between, they still need to supervise complex repairs. Often, this requires physical travel and can lead to a backlog of vehicles, aircraft, and equipment that require attention. HoloLens could be used to facilitate remote assistance providing the required expertise without the expense and time commitment of traveling to remote sites. Taken together, all these scenarios can increase operational efficiency and support an optimized rate of mission capability.

Intelligent, cloud-enabled technology can help defense agencies better target training and maintenance activities, ultimately benefitting increased mission effectiveness. Transforming manual processes to more modern, digitally-driven solutions could be a game-changer, leading to increased mission-capable rates of vehicles and equipment and the increased readiness of personnel. It’s an exciting time for defense agencies: innovations in machine learning, mixed reality, and AI are bringing intelligent solutions to the issue of readiness.

To learn more about how defense agencies are innovating with AI and cloud-enabled technology, listen to the GovPod podcast episode: The Digital Military: Ready for Anything – online or via Apple Podcasts, Google Play, or Spotify.  And, download the Digital transformation for defense and intelligence e-book today.

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• PS4 Holiday Sale Round Two Starts Now: Huge Savings On 2019's Best Games

As Walgreens embarked on plans to create a new type of retail experience for customers more than a year ago, it realized that an innovative approach to training employees was in order.

Walgreens employees were used to consulting with customers on the best beauty products, filling photo orders, dispensing medications and providing personalized health and wellness information. But selling fresh produce, delivering groceries to vehicles and helping customers find ingredients for dinner — that was all new, and potentially challenging.

So to prepare employees to handle around 2,500 new food items at its revamped “Kroger Express” stores, Walgreens is piloting an immersive, mixed-reality training program using Microsoft HoloLens 2 and tablet devices.

The program, part of a broader partnership with Microsoft, will use a three-dimensional model of the reconfigured stores and various scenarios to teach employees how to restock products, determine if an onion or banana is past its prime, help customers redeem grocery coupons and deal with unfamiliar customer service situations — for example, offering a substitute grocery item if something the customer wants is out of stock.

“We feel that this very immersive, interactive technology helps team members grasp new ways of learning beyond what I’ll call the paper exercise,” says Steven Lamontagne, vice president of physical design and formats for Deerfield, Illinois-based Walgreens Boots Alliance, Walgreens’ parent company.

The HoloLens training, developed by Microsoft partner Altoura, is first being tested at a Walgreens store in Knoxville, Tennessee. From there, it could be expanded to another 34 stores in Knoxville and 17 in Northern Kentucky and the greater Cincinnati area that are part of a pilot with supermarket retailer Kroger. About 20 Kroger Express stores have opened since the pilot launched in late 2018.

The Kroger Express stores are being remodeled to accommodate the new products, and Lamontagne says HoloLens 2 training offers the benefit of familiarizing employees with the new store layouts even before renovations are finished.

“By using a 3D model for the store, a team member gets to see what the future is going to be like after their store’s remodeled, and they’re immediately within that new physical environment,” he says.

The effort is part of a multipronged partnership between Walgreen Boots Alliance and Microsoft, announced a year ago, that Walgreens envisions as transforming the modern retail and pharmacy experience. As part of the partnership, Walgreens and Boots stores — located in the U.K. and other regions — are migrating their on-premises data warehouses to Azure to improve operations and lower costs.

Walgreens Boots Alliance is migrating on-premises data warehouses into Azure Synapse Analytics — a service that merges enterprise data warehousing and big data analytics — to improve operations and modernize business processes.

The company is also using Azure Synapse to bring together data from disparate sources to understand customer needs and optimize supply chains. Azure Synapse will enable Walgreens to analyze vast amounts of data in real time while applying machine learning to get insights that help employees provide customers with the products they want while preventing unsold inventory from cluttering the back office.

The revamped Walgreens stores are also implementing an anonymous shopping path system, developed by Microsoft partner Acuity, that uses Bluetooth beacons on carts and baskets to understand how customers are moving through the reconfigured stores. That data is then aggregated in Azure, and Microsoft’s Power BI visualization tool is used to identify patterns — for example, how customers are shopping during the holiday season — and help determine whether the new store formats are meeting customers’ needs.

For now, the most visible aspect of the partnership with Kroger will be the rows of grocery items alongside the cosmetics and pharmacy goods. The Kroger Express stores will carry produce staples, dairy, meat items, meal kits and organic products. Customers can also order groceries online and have them delivered curbside at the pilot stores.

With more than 9,200 Walgreens stores around the United States, close to 78 percent of the U.S. population lives within five miles of a Walgreens or other Walgreens-owned store, Lamontagne says, so giving customers the opportunity to purchase food items made sense.

“If you think about the high-frequency purchases you make in your life, food tends to be one of them,” he says. “Having a range of Kroger products and leveraging their expertise within the Walgreens box really gives customers a new retail experience. This allows them to be able to fill their pantries and their fridges, and get a credible range of products to make a meal for their family.”

Read more about the progress Walgreens and Microsoft have made in the first year of their strategic partnership at the Walgreens Newsroom.

Darwin Project is Now Available on Steam!

In Darwin Project, ten inmates must survive the elements, track each other, fight, craft tools, and use their social skills to be the last one standing. It’s a unique take on battle royale with a Show Director to influence the match and Spectator Interactions to create a one-of-a-kind game show.

The Gamasutra Job Board is the most diverse, active and established board of its kind for the video game industry!

Here is just one of the many, many positions being advertised right now.

Location: Los Angeles, California

Evening Star is a boutique game studio founded in late 2018. Our mission is designing fresh, fun games which will stand the test of time.

For us, being a “boutique” game studio has a specific meaning. Every member pursues a goal to help create great games. With that driving approach, and a proprietary engine and tool set, Evening Star has developed an innovative workflow which minimizes the barriers between ideas and execution.

We are looking for a Technical Artist to join the team.

Responsibilities:  

• Help in designing and implementing advanced graphic assets and effects into the game such as shaders, particles, effects, etc.
• Help in designing and implementing the art content pipeline for the game
• Maintain and improve technologies and art workflows
• Collaborate with artists, designers, and programmers daily to identify challenges and provide solutions

Requirements:  

• Candidates must be available for full-time work in the Downtown Los Angeles area for this position
• 3+ years of professional game development experience
• Understanding of at least one 3D package (Preferably Maya) and extensive knowledge of CG fundamentals: shaders, modelling, texturing, rigging, animation, lighting, rendering and compositing
• Intermediate scripting experience with Python and/or Mel/Maya API
• Intermediate experience with Shader Languages (HLSL/GLSL etc)
• Ability to synthesize ideas about what tools will make things easier for the artists
• Understanding of various gaming platform limitations with regard to visual assets
• Ability to troubleshoot CG issues
• Familiarity with playtesting and creative reviews
• Must be comfortable with Github, Perforce, or other comparable version control systems

Bonus Requirements:  

• Proficiency with C# or C++
• 3D level design, creation and implementation experience
• 3D modelling, rigging, and animation experience

Interested? Apply now.

Whether you’re just starting out, looking for something new, or just seeing what’s out there, the Gamasutra Job Board is the place where game developers move ahead in their careers.

Gamasutra’s Job Board is the most diverse, most active, and most established board of its kind in the video game industry, serving companies of all sizes, from indie to triple-A.

Looking for a new job? Get started here. Are you a recruiter looking for talent? Post jobs here.

The free NeoAxis game engine, previously covered in-depth in this hands-on video, have just released NeoAxis 2019.4.  The 2019.4 release brings an impressive number of new features to the engine including the beginnings of a new 2D game engine, a game framework for handling common game development tasks, improvements to the 3D Builder tools and more.

Details from the 2019.4 change log:

• Game framework. Managing characters, various types of cameras, a set of more specialized game objects. The ability to configure game mode, camera type in the editor. First person camera, third person camera, free camera are supported.
• 2D game engine. 2D physics, sprites, tools, demo scenes. 2D game engine is implemented as extension for NeoAxis.
• Character component. The set of classes and tools for creation characters.
• Particles.
• Terrain paint layers.
• Primitives have been added: Arch, Door, Pipe, Prism, Stairs, Torus.
• Builder 3D has been improved.
• Optimization: GPU instancing for transparent objects.
• NeoAxis Baking: The ability to disable compression of archive. That makes loading baked resources faster.
• The ability to set color multiplier for decals in the scene.
• Add Collision: Convex mode has been added.
• Surface Area has been added. The object represents an area that filled by surface. An object is used to automatically fill with a large number of objects in a given area.
• Bug fix: Invalid management of Color property of meshes and billboards with enabled GPU instancing.

You can learn more about the future of the NeoAxis engine by checking the roadmap available here, and learn more about the 2019.4 release in their more in-depth blog post or by watching the video below.

GameDev News Engine C# 2D 3D

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<!–

–>

‘One less device’

The Domain Name System, or DNS, as it’s more commonly known, translates or converts domain names into the IP addresses associated with that domain. DNS is the reason you are able to find your favorite website by name instead of typing an IP address into your browser. This guide shows you how to configure a Master DNS system and one client.

Here are system details for the example used in this article:

dns01.fedora.local (192.168.1.160 ) - Master DNS server

client.fedora.local (192.168.1.136 ) - Client 

DNS server configuration

Install the bind packages using sudo:

$ sudo dnf install bind bind-utils -y

The /etc/named.conf configuration file is provided by the bind package to allow you to configure the DNS server.

Edit the /etc/named.conf file:

sudo vi /etc/named.conf

Look for the following line:

listen-on port 53 { 127.0.0.1; };

Add the IP address of your Master DNS server as follows:

listen-on port 53 { 127.0.0.1; 192.168.1.160; };

Look for the next line:

allow-query  { localhost; };

Add your local network range. The example system uses IP addresses in the 192.168.1.X range. This is specified as follows:

allow-query  { localhost; 192.168.1.0/24; };

Specify a forward and reverse zone. Zone files are simply text files that have the DNS information, such as IP addresses and host-names, on your system. The forward zone file makes it possible for the translation of a host-name to its IP address. The reverse zone file does the opposite. It allows a remote system to translate an IP address to the host name.

Look for the following line at the bottom of the /etc/named.conf file:

include "/etc/named.rfc1912.zones";

Here, you’ll specify the zone file information directly above that line as follows:

zone "dns01.fedora.local" IN {

type master;

file "forward.fedora.local";

allow-update { none; };

}; zone "1.168.192.in-addr.arpa" IN {

type master;

file "reverse.fedora.local";

allow-update { none; };

};

The forward.fedora.local and the file reverse.fedora.local are just the names of the zone files you will be creating. They can be called anything you like.

Save and exit.

Create the zone files

Create the forward and reverse zone files you specified in the /etc/named.conf file:

$ sudo vi /var/named/forward.fedora.local

Add the following lines:

$TTL 86400

@   IN  SOA     dns01.fedora.local. root.fedora.local. (

        2011071001  ;Serial

        3600        ;Refresh

        1800        ;Retry

        604800      ;Expire

        86400       ;Minimum TTL

)

@       IN  NS          dns01.fedora.local.

@       IN  A           192.168.1.160

dns01        IN  A   192.168.1.160

client          IN  A   192.168.1.136

Everything in bold is specific to your environment. Save the file and exit. Next, edit the reverse.fedora.local file:

$ sudo vi /var/named/reverse.fedora.local

Add the following lines:

$TTL 86400

@   IN  SOA     dns01.fedora.local. root.fedora.local. (

        2011071001  ;Serial

        3600        ;Refresh

        1800        ;Retry

        604800      ;Expire

        86400       ;Minimum TTL

)

@       IN  NS          dns01.fedora.local.

@       IN  PTR         fedora.local.

dns01       IN  A   192.168.1.160

client          IN  A   192.168.1.136

160     IN  PTR         dns01.fedora.local.

136     IN  PTR         client.fedora.local.

Everything in bold is also specific to your environment. Save the file and exit.

You’ll also need to configure SELinux and add the correct ownership for the configuration files.

sudo chgrp named -R /var/named

sudo chown -v root:named /etc/named.conf

sudo restorecon -rv /var/named

sudo restorecon /etc/named.conf

Configure the firewall:

sudo firewall-cmd --add-service=dns --perm

sudo firewall-cmd --reload

Check the configuration for any syntax errors

sudo named-checkconf /etc/named.conf

Your configuration is valid if no output or errors are returned.

Check the forward and reverse zone files.

$ sudo named-checkzone forward.fedora.local /var/named/forward.fedora.local $ sudo named-checkzone reverse.fedora.local /var/named/reverse.fedora.local

You should see a response of OK:

zone forward.fedora.local/IN: loaded serial 2011071001

OK zone reverse.fedora.local/IN: loaded serial 2011071001

OK

Enable and start the DNS service

$ sudo systemctl enable named

$ sudo systemctl start named

Configuring the resolv.conf file

Edit the /etc/resolv.conf file:

$ sudo vi /etc/resolv.conf

Look for your current name server line or lines. On the example system, a cable modem/router is serving as the name server and so it currently looks like this:

nameserver 192.168.1.1

This needs to be changed to the IP address of the Master DNS server:

nameserver 192.168.1.160

Save your changes and exit.

Unfortunately there is one caveat to be aware of. NetworkManager overwrites the /etc/resolv.conf file if the system is rebooted or networking gets restarted. This means you will lose all of the changes that you made.

To prevent this from happening, make /etc/resolv.conf immutable:

$ sudo chattr +i /etc/resolv.conf 

If you want to set it back and allow it to be overwritten again:

$ sudo chattr -i /etc/resolv.conf

Testing the DNS server

$ dig fedoramagazine.org

; <<>> DiG 9.11.13-RedHat-9.11.13-2.fc30 <<>> fedoramagazine.org

;; global options: +cmd

;; Got answer:

;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 8391

;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 3, ADDITIONAL: 6 ;; OPT PSEUDOSECTION: ; EDNS: version: 0, flags:; udp: 4096 ; COOKIE: c7350d07f8efaa1286c670ab5e13482d600f82274871195a (good) ;; QUESTION SECTION: ;fedoramagazine.org. IN A ;; ANSWER SECTION: fedoramagazine.org. 50 IN A 35.197.52.145 ;; AUTHORITY SECTION: fedoramagazine.org. 86150 IN NS ns05.fedoraproject.org. fedoramagazine.org. 86150 IN NS ns02.fedoraproject.org. fedoramagazine.org. 86150 IN NS ns04.fedoraproject.org. ;; ADDITIONAL SECTION: ns02.fedoraproject.org. 86150 IN A 152.19.134.139 ns04.fedoraproject.org. 86150 IN A 209.132.181.17 ns05.fedoraproject.org. 86150 IN A 85.236.55.10 ns02.fedoraproject.org. 86150 IN AAAA 2610:28:3090:3001:dead:beef:cafe:fed5 ns05.fedoraproject.org. 86150 IN AAAA 2001:4178:2:1269:dead:beef:cafe:fed5 ;; Query time: 830 msec ;; SERVER: 192.168.1.160#53(192.168.1.160) ;; WHEN: Mon Jan 06 08:46:05 CST 2020 ;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 266

There are a few things to look at to verify that the DNS server is working correctly. Obviously getting the results back are important, but that by itself doesn’t mean the DNS server is actually doing the work.

The QUERY, ANSWER, and AUTHORITY fields at the top should show non-zero as it in does in our example:

;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 3, ADDITIONAL: 6

And the SERVER field should have the IP address of your DNS server:

;; SERVER: 192.168.1.160#53(192.168.1.160)

In case this is the first time you’ve run the dig command, notice how it took 830 milliseconds for the query to complete:

;; Query time: 830 msec

If you run it again, the query will run much quicker:

$ dig fedoramagazine.org 

;; Query time: 0 msec

;; SERVER: 192.168.1.160#53(192.168.1.160)

Client configuration

The client configuration will be a lot simpler.

Install the bind utilities:

$ sudo dnf install bind-utils -y

Edit the /etc/resolv.conf file and configure the Master DNS as the only name server:

$ sudo vi /etc/resolv.conf

This is how it should look:

nameserver 192.168.1.160

Save your changes and exit. Then, make the /etc/resolv.conf file immutable to prevent it from be overwritten and going back to its default settings:

$ sudo chattr +i /etc/resolv.conf

Testing the client

You should get the same results as you did from the DNS server:

$ dig fedoramagazine.org

; <<>> DiG 9.11.13-RedHat-9.11.13-2.fc30 <<>> fedoramagazine.org

;; global options: +cmd

;; Got answer:

;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 8391

;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 3, ADDITIONAL: 6 ;; OPT PSEUDOSECTION: ; EDNS: version: 0, flags:; udp: 4096 ; COOKIE: c7350d07f8efaa1286c670ab5e13482d600f82274871195a (good) ;; QUESTION SECTION: ;fedoramagazine.org. IN A ;; ANSWER SECTION: fedoramagazine.org. 50 IN A 35.197.52.145 ;; AUTHORITY SECTION: fedoramagazine.org. 86150 IN NS ns05.fedoraproject.org. fedoramagazine.org. 86150 IN NS ns02.fedoraproject.org. fedoramagazine.org. 86150 IN NS ns04.fedoraproject.org. ;; ADDITIONAL SECTION: ns02.fedoraproject.org. 86150 IN A 152.19.134.139 ns04.fedoraproject.org. 86150 IN A 209.132.181.17 ns05.fedoraproject.org. 86150 IN A 85.236.55.10 ns02.fedoraproject.org. 86150 IN AAAA 2610:28:3090:3001:dead:beef:cafe:fed5 ns05.fedoraproject.org. 86150 IN AAAA 2001:4178:2:1269:dead:beef:cafe:fed5 ;; Query time: 1 msec ;; SERVER: 192.168.1.160#53(192.168.1.160) ;; WHEN: Mon Jan 06 08:46:05 CST 2020 ;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 266

Make sure the SERVER output has the IP Address of your DNS server.

Your DNS server is now ready to use and all requests from the client should be going through your DNS server now!