Posted by: xSicKxBot - 07-30-2019, 04:32 AM - Forum: Windows
- No Replies
Meet the 2019 AI for Good Idea Challenge winners
Thanks to developers, the world runs on software!
Developers have played a strong role in many of the massive transformations and technology shifts of the past few decades. And now that AI is redefining how software is created with the capability to learn through data and experiences and to perceive the world around us through vision, speech and understanding, we’re excited to see a whole new level of transformation and innovation coming to the forefront. We love learning from and showcasing the cool developers behind these innovations.
To that end, in 2018 Microsoft created the initial AI Idea Challenge to explore how developers were applying AI in meaningful and fascinating ways. As we explored the projects that poured in, it was clear that developers were incredibly inspired by the ability to use AI to positively impact society. This desire is directly aligned with our vision to use AI to empower people to take on some of society’s toughest issues. Voilá, a new developer challenge called the AI for Good Idea Challenge was born!
This challenge is focused on using developer creativity and skills specifically around AI for Good scenarios. Great winning projects from our first AI Idea Challenge, like Angel Eyes and Clean Water AI, helped to inspire more developers than ever to get involved and think up new ways to leverage Microsoft AI to tackle societal issues. I have been amazed by the sheer numbers and pure creativity of the ideas from developers across the globe. Ready to be inspired? Take a look at the highlight video to get an idea of the breadth of ideas that came in.
YouTube Video
data-video-id=”c8l7AqTmLEw”>
To help us select winners of the AI for Good Idea Challenge, we brought together a team of judges to evaluate each entry against three criteria: originality of impact, complexity to implement and solution feasibility. With such passion and creativity represented in work of these talented developers, it was very hard to pick the winners. My deepest gratitude goes out to all who entered. Thank you!
And now, I’m thrilled to share the winners of the AI for Good Idea Challenge:
First place: CardioVision, by Bohdan Petryshak, is an AI solution that can help patients at risk of coronary artery disease live a better life. This non-invasive screening measures the stiffness of the brachial artery in your arm, which correlates to stiff and even clogged coronary arteries that can lead to heart disease. By detecting artery defects and disease up to three times faster, patients are equipped for better heart attack prevention.
Second place: LeafAI, by Maanasa Mendu, identifies 38 classes of biotic plant disease from a basic smartphone picture – with an astounding 90% accuracy rate. The homogeneity of the current agriculture system combined with the effects of climate change has led to a growing threat of plant disease, contributing to malnutrition in nearly 700,000 people around the world. LeafAI’s technology can help identify plant diseases and provide information about treatment, taking us one step closer to better economic and food security.
Third place: OrganSecure, by Pratik Mohapatra, is a sophisticated set of machine learning algorithms that can quickly match organ donors and provide real-time updates with people in need of a transplant. Using health parameters such as blood group and antigen type, it becomes possible to predict the match of an organ and estimate the rank and time required for an awaiting recipient. Not only would this help people waiting for organs, but it would also make the host-donor matching process more transparent.
You can learn more about the winning projects here.
We were incredibly fortunate to have four stellar judges for our first AI for Good Idea Challenge who evaluated the projects and had the tough job of selecting the winners. Thank you to our judges: Stephen Ibaraki, Wendy Chisholm, Alma Cardena and David Carmona.
CONGRATULATIONS to each of our winners! Thank you to all the developers who took the time to share and submit their great ideas for the challenge. We can’t wait to do it again!
David McLaughlin, Product and Technical Head of Twitter Computing Platform, has announced that Twitter’s infrastructure would completely switch from Mesos to Kubernetes. “Twitter’s switch from its initial adoption of Mesos to the use of Kubernetes Native today proves again the assertion that Kubernetes has become an industry standard for container orchestration. More importantly, Twitter’s embrace of Cloud Native is expected to provide a classic learning model for the large-scale implementation of the cloud-native technology in production,” said Zhang Lei, Senior Technical Expert on Alibaba Cloud Container Platform and Co-maintainer of Kubernetes Project. (Source: Alibaba Cloud Blog)
Epic Games Store Cloud Saves Available For Select Games
The Epic Games Store has begun experimenting with cloud saves, a feature found in just about every platform from Steam to the Nintendo Switch. Epic CEO Tim Sweeney delivered the announcement on Twitter, saying "cloud saves are enabled for a couple of new games right now."
Unfortunately, the word "couple" seems to be literal here. Twitter user ShyXLFT said another individual discovered an "enable cloud save" function in the settings of the action-RPG Moonlighter. Engadget reports the other game is the survival strategy game This War of Mine. Sweeney didn't confirm which "couple of new games" have cloud saves enabled, but he did note the feature needs "a bit more work" before implementing it across the entire Epic Games Store.
Cloud saves are enabled for a couple of new games right now. We have a bit more work to do before rolling it out more widely.
When asked how the feature is implemented, Sweeney said that adding cloud saves is "a manual process for the store team per game." He implied the feature doesn't require any extra coding from the developers and games don't need any form of updates on the developer side for cloud saves to be enabled.
Epic unveiled a roadmap earlier this year, where cloud saves--and various other features--targeted a July release. A few other features expected to arrive in July are improvements to the library, a redesign of the store page, cutting patch sizes, and more.
Coincidently, the two free PC games offered through the Epic Games Store are Moonlighter and This War of Mine. From now through Friday, August 2, both titles can be snagged for the low cost of free. Alan Wake and For Honor will be the next free games up for grabs.
Manage your own team of professional cyclists in the new 2019 season. Take the lead in over 200 races and 600 stages around the world and try to win legendary races like La Vuelta and the Tour de France.
The only official simulation that features all the unique characteristics of the ETRC and offers all racing fans a completely new driving experience: race a giant 5-tonne, 1,000-horsepower truck against 12 competitors while respecting the race rules to avoid penalties.
Astral Chain Preview: Two Characters Make Combat A Fast-Paced Blast
Platinum Games upcoming Nintendo Switch title, Astral Chain, puts you in the role of a metaphysical anime K-9 cop. It's as cool an idea as it sounds, thanks to the game's mixture of a variety of ideas: light investigation mechanics, a little bit of platforming, and a combat system that puts you in control of two characters at once and gives a new twist to Platinum's usual approach to stylish, hard action.
At San Diego Comic-Con 2019, Nintendo offered GameSpot our first chance to get hands-on with Astral Chain. We played a small portion of the game that took place a few hours in, which seemed more akin to a side quest than a main story mission. The slice gave a brief look at a lot of what Astral Chain has to offer, including its combat system and investigation mechanics, and how they'll both work together with the game's central conceit--controlling two characters at once.
You play a member of a special police force unit called Neuron in Astral Chain, and your duties include dealing with the fact that the astral plane is spilling over into the real world. With it comes monsters, but you have a special trick for dealing with those, too: a Legion, your own astral plane entity that can fight monsters for you automatically or follow your commands. Your Legion is basically like a sword-wielding dog you lead around on a leash. The Legion attacks hostile creatures on its own, but you can also tell it where to go and what to attack.
Your Legion is basically like a sword-wielding dog you lead around on a leash.
The slice of Astral Chain we played started with a case about a missing woman who had seemingly come under attack from an astral plane monster, known as a chimera. Heading to the crime scene means walking through Astral Chain's city, where you'll find citizens to speak with and shops where you can buy useful items. Talking with people can give you information about the game's story and the cases you'll work on as you progress through the game, and like a real cop, you'll keep notes about important information you learn along the way. Conversations that took place before our slice of the game had brought up mention of something called "the Red Ghost," which turned out to be the chimera we're hunting.
Arriving at the crime scene gave a quick sense of what Astral Chain's investigations are like. This case required checking certain spots on the ground where evidence had been marked. We were able to see a reconstruction of the victim lying on the ground after the attack and picked up some other information about the event, and eventually, we found a place where the chimera's astral plane energy had warped reality slightly. That was the clue we were looking for.
Using Your Supernatural Police Dog
As you walk around in Astral Chain, your Legion isn't necessarily always by your side, but you can just about always summon it with a quick press of the ZL button. You can use it to analyze astral plane evidence, and when we brought our Legion to check out what had happened at the crime scene, it was able to detect an astral trail the chimera had left behind. Now we were using the Legion like a bloodhound, navigating through the streets as it illuminated the trail. Before long, Astral Chain presented another use for the Legion--it can allow you to cross large gaps and leap to distant locations.
When you summon the Legion, it'll float around on the end of its spectral leash and follow you, but you can take control of its movements by holding ZL and using the right thumbstick. Positioning the Legion on the far side of a gap lets you use it to pull you across the abyss, making it useful for platforming. You can also direct it to specific spots to activate switches and solve simple puzzles.
Eventually, the Legion led us to a portal to the astral plane where the chimera had taken the woman. The astral plane is a spooky, strangely geometric and minimalist landscape, basically filled with arenas for battling enemies and locations to use your Legion to solve puzzles. It was here that we got our first taste of combat, which, despite sometimes requiring you to control two characters in the heat of battle, is actually intuitive and easy to pick up.
One Player Co-op Combat
You only have one attack button in Astral Chain, which you'll pound away on as you fight enemies to create combos. Variety in combat is created by how your weapon can transform seamlessly; you wield a high-tech police baton that can change shape to fit the situation. It starts as a small, fast melee weapon, but can be switched to a powerful, slow, heavy sword called a gladius, or morphed into a pistol. You can switch your weapon on the fly to change your attacks as you pummel enemies, and stringing several attacks together builds a combo.
Fighting is less about performing a bunch of complex moves and more about exact timing to link your attacks with those of your Legion. String six hits together and you'll see a blue circle appear on your character as time briefly slows, prompting you to hit ZL to summon your Legion. Do that in time, and the creature will spring into action, adding another big hit to your attack. You can then follow up with another strike of your own, which triggers another Legion prompt, and so on. After you've done enough damage, you can also activate finishing moves with your Legion, which sends your partner to rip out a chimera's "ability core," and restores your health and increases how long your Legion can fight at your side.
Your other major ability is a quick dodge that can get you out of harm's way, and slipping past incoming attacks at the absolute last second gives you another opening to send your Legion in for an attack. Combat quickly becomes a fast-paced concert of attacks on open opponents and dodges that give you chances for counter-attacks, with your Legion leaping in and out to extend your combos. When you're not actively telling your Legion what to do, though, it engages whoever's closest on its own, without requiring you to babysit it.
The result is the ability to control both characters, or just one, depending on the situation. You still need to be aware of both characters, though--your Legion disappears if a timer that starts when you summon it runs out, and more time gets subtracted as it takes damage.
The Legion has a few other tricks, too. The creature is leashed to your wrist with its spectral chain, but if you control the Legion directly, you can wrap that chain around enemies (including bosses), which briefly locks them in place and stuns them. And like your weapon, you can switch it between a few different versions, like a sword-wielding take, or a slower, more hulking one. The sword Legion can be called on for special moves, too. We fought a big shield-wielding enemy, which required lots of combos with the Legion to beat, but later, it was joined by a floating pink baddie that could create a tether between it and its allies, rendering both invulnerable. Calling on the Legion allows you to take direct control of it for a sword strike that can cut things in the environment, including that energy tether. Slicing through it broke the invulnerability bond, allowing us to send the Legion to fight one enemy while we took on the other.
After fighting some smaller enemies, we took on the chimera we'd been hunting, a multi-headed dog creature called, of course, Cerberus. The boss fight felt pretty typical to action games, with the monster winding up for big ground-smashing attacks that sent shockwaves outward, or leaping into the air to come hurtling back down toward us. The skill in the fight was in recognizing and dodging incoming attacks to create openings for the Legion to strike at the Cerberus. Avoiding attacks was a big focus since the boss could do massive damage to both you and your Legion; you need to protect yourself and pay attention to where your partner is to keep both of you alive and dishing out combo damage.
More Astral Police Work
The fight was tough, but in all not too overwhelming. Astral Chain's combat feels relatively simple when you first pick it up, which helps keep it accessible, but the number of things you can do with your Legion as you get used to the speed and timing of a fight adds a lot of complexity. The result is a combat system that allows you to do a lot of cool things as you get better at it, but which adds difficulty in the amount of attention and coordination it demands. Astral Chain wants you to be constantly thinking in two directions, and the skill involved in its fights comes both from quick reactions and timing, and from keeping track of both characters so you can use them effectively without getting either one killed.
The Astral Chain demo wrapped up with defeating the boss and returning the woman safely back to the human world--only to discover that in the meantime, chimeras had started appearing all over the place and the astral plane was bleeding through into the real world. Civilians were scattered around the area where chimeras were showing up, so we were tasked with clearing out the enemies--along with a giant, sword-wielding boss creature--in order to save them.
Astral Chain wants you to be constantly thinking in two directions.
Though the demo only lasted 20 minutes or so, our look at Astral Chain was enough to get a sense of how fast and satisfying its combat can be. It looks as though your Legion will be an integral part of the entire experience, which offers a lot of depth to a combat system that's otherwise simple enough that just about anybody can pick it up.
The demo was a little thinner on what the other half of the game will be like, as you venture through the city talking to other humans and solving metaphysical crimes. The investigation in our slice of the game was pretty shallow and simplistic, but the inclusion of the notebook suggests that doing police work will be a bigger part of the game and might be more complex than just interacting with certain spots on the ground.
What's clear is that there are a lot of cool ideas at work in Astral Chain. Platinum Games' newest take on combat changes up the usual approach to action games just enough to feel fresh without being overwhelming, and its metaphysical setting and two-character mechanics suggest everything beyond fighting will be pretty interesting, too. We won't have to wait long to see how Platinum's new ideas work together as a whole; Astral Chain is due to hit Nintendo Switch on August 30.
A previous article covered some basics about file permissions on your Fedora system. This installment shows you additional ways to use permissions to manage file access and sharing. It also builds on the knowledge and examples in the previous article, so if you haven’t read that one, do check it out.
Symbolic and octal
In the previous article you saw how there are three distinct permission sets for a file. The user that owns the file has a set, members of the group that owns the file has a set, and then a final set is for everyone else. These permissions are expressed on screen in a long listing (ls -l) using symbolic mode.
Each set has r, w, and x entries for whether a particular user (owner, group member, or other) can read, write, or execute that file. But there’s another way to express these permissions: in octal mode.
You’re used to the decimal numbering system, which has ten distinct values (0 through 9). The octal system, on the other hand, has eight distinct values (0 through 7). In the case of permissions, octal is used as a shorthand to show the value of the r, w, and x fields. Think of each field as having a value:
r = 4
w = 2
x = 1
Now you can express any combination with a single octal value. For instance, read and write permission, but no execute permission, would have a value of 6. Read and execute permission only would have a value of 5. A file’s rwxr-xr-x symbolic permission has an octal value of 755.
You can use octal values to set file permissions with the chmod command similarly to symbolic values. The following two commands set the same permissions on a file:
chmod u=rw,g=r,o=r myfile1 chmod 644 myfile1
Special permission bits
There are several special permission bits also available on a file. These are called setuid (or suid), setgid (or sgid), and the sticky bit (or delete inhibit). Think of this as yet another set of octal values:
setuid = 4
setgid = 2
sticky = 1
The setuid bit is ignored unless the file is executable. If that’s the case, the file (presumably an app or a script) runs as if it were launched by the user who owns the file. A good example of setuid is the /bin/passwd utility, which allows a user to set or change passwords. This utility must be able to write to files no user should be allowed to change. Therefore it is carefully written, owned by the root user, and has a setuid bit so it can alter the password related files.
The setgid bit works similarly for executable files. The file will run with the permissions of the group that owns it. However, setgid also has an additional use for directories. If a file is created in a directory with setgid permission, the group owner for the file will be set to the group owner of the directory.
Finally, the sticky bit, while ignored for files, is useful for directories. The sticky bit set on a directory will prevent a user from deleting files in that directory owned by other users.
The way to set these bits with chmod in octal mode is to add a value prefix, such as 4755 to add setuid to an executable file. In symbolic mode, the u and g can be used to set or remove setuid and setgid, such as u+s,g+s. The sticky bit is set using o+t. (Other combinations, like o+s or u+t, are meaningless and ignored.)
Sharing and special permissions
Recall the example from the previous article concerning a finance team that needs to share files. As you can imagine, the special permission bits help to solve their problem even more effectively. The original solution simply made a directory the whole group could write to:
One problem with this directory is that users dwayne and jill, who are both members of the finance group, can delete each other’s files. That’s not optimal for a shared space. It might be useful in some situations, but probably not when dealing with financial records!
Another problem is that files in this directory may not be truly shared, because they will be owned by the default groups of dwayne and jill — most likely the user private groups also named dwayne and jill.
A better way to solve this is to set both setgid and the sticky bit on the folder. This will do two things — cause files created in the folder to be owned by the finance group automatically, and prevent dwayne and jill from deleting each other’s files. Either of these commands will work:
The long listing for the file now shows the new special permissions applied. The sticky bit appears as T and not t because the folder is not searchable for users outside the finance group.
Apple’s 2019 MacBook Pros fall to all-time lows, prices from $1,099
By Christine McKee Sunday, July 28, 2019, 01:27 pm PT (04:27 pm ET)
Apple’s newest 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Pros are on sale this weekend, with fresh price drops knocking up to $350 off at top Apple Authorized Resellers, including Amazon, B&H Photo and Best Buy.
The back to school savings are in addition to closeout markdowns on MacBook Air and 2018 MacBook Pro models, with these new price drops offering record low prices on Apple’s latest laptops. Prices start at $1,099 for students thanks to Best Buy’s additional $100 student discount, although Amazon and B&H Photo are also offering aggressive deals regardless of student status (and B&H’s prices often come out even lower for those in qualifying states when you save on sales tax with the Payboo Card).
AppleInsider has partnered with top Apple Authorized Resellers to bring you a variety of the best discounts on Apple products. From Macs to Apple Watches, the lowest prices are available 365 days a year in our Apple Price Guide.
Unity valuation hits $6 billion following latest investment deal
Unity’s valuation has climbed to $6 billion after the company signed an investment deal with D1 Capital Partners, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Light Street Capital, Sequoia Capital, and Silver Lake Partners that will finance a $525 million tender offer to common shareholders.
The engine maker will only secure the full $525 million if enough shareholders, most of whom are former and current employees, decide to sell. Unity CFO, Kim Jabal, appears confident, however, and said the company is pleased to provide its staff with “the opportunity for some liquidity.”
Assuming Unity receives the full amount, it’d take the company’s recent funding total to $675 million, with a good chunk of that cash being raised through a hefty Series E funding round that took place in May.
It’s unclear whether the latest investment will have any impact on Unity’s long-rumored IPO plans. The company has apparently been preparing to go public in the first half of 2020 as long as market conditions are favorable, although we’ve yet to hear anything official confirming those reports.
PUBG Corp says it has buried the hatchet with Fortnite dev Epic Games
“While I think we can learn a little bit from how that’s working over there, just like all games learn from each other, I don’t think their model exactly works for us.”
– PUBG Corp’s Brian Corrigan details the relationship between it and Fortnite dev Epic Games.
Despite past animosity, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds developer PUBG Corp says there’s no bad blood between it and Fortnite developer Epic Games, going so far as to tell PCGamesN that “they’re one of our best partners.”
In that conversation, which can be found in full here, PUBG Corp studio director Brian Corrigan explains that PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds and Fortnite have grown into two quite different games, though they can learn lessons from one another.
“I guess what I’m trying to say is, it’s not like we’re taking the blueprint over there and trying to build a better photocopier,” says Corrigan. “That’s not it. If there’s pieces that work for us, that’s great, because we should learn from the best teachers across a lot of different games, but our formula is unique. That’s something we understand, and we have to always remember: this PUBG formula is unique, there really is nothing else out there like it.”
A relationship between the two companies is expected since PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is built on Epic Games’ Unreal Engine and, higher up the ladder, both companies are involved with the Chinese company Tencent.
Still, it’s quite a different tune from the one PUBG Corp was singing a little over a year ago. Last May, the company filed a lawsuit against Epic Games that alleged Fortnite’s then-new battle royale mode infringes on PUBG Corp’s copyrights due to its similarity to PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds. Slightly before the lawsuit was launched, the vice president of PUBG Corp parent company Bluehole accused Epic of “replicating the experience for which Battlegrounds is known” through the free-to-play Fortnite mode. However, that lawsuit was quietly withdrawn less than a month later.
