New Digital Wallet Calibra by Facebook

calibra

Facebook announced new digital wallet Calibra for the new digital currency Libra  and expected to be launched in 2020. Facebook announced as this wallet will be available in Messenger, WhatsApp and as a standalone app.

Use of Calibra:

Calibra will be used to send Libra (digital currency) to anyone with a smartphone, as easily and instantly and at low to no cost. In future, it may offer additional services for people and businesses, like paying bills with the push of a button, buying a cup of coffee with the scan of a code or riding your local public transit without needing to carry cash or a metro pass.

Will Facebook use Calibra users data?

Facebook confirmed that Calibra account information with not be shared with Facbook or any third party without customer consent. This means Calibra customers’ account information and financial data will not be used to improve ad targeting on the Facebook family of products.

New Digital Currency Libra

Libra

Blockchain is an advanced technology and did breakthrough in IT industry recently with its unique features.  The significant power of blockchain technology is once record added into blockchain, cannot be altered or deleted, since it stored in decentralized network.

Libra is a new digital currency powered by libra blockchain technology, which enable the stable, secure and strong global financial system.  Primary goal for the new digital currency Libra is to produce a digital currency that use for billions of people everyday spending and ease convenient transfer money around the world with safe and secure.

“The mission for Libra is a simple global currency and financial infrastructure that empowers billions of people.”

Trustworthiness:

Unlike the majority of cryptocurrencies, Libra is fully backed by a reserve of real assets. A basket of currencies and assets will be held in the Libra Reserve for every Libra that is created, building trust in its intrinsic value.

How it works:

The Libra Blockchain is operated by a network of validator nodes. The Founding Members of the Libra Association will be responsible for running a validator node. As the network grows and becomes more self-sustaining, the Libra Association will work to gradually transition to a permission-less mode of operation. In that sense, Libra will start as a permissioned blockchain.

How it connected with Facebook

Facebook teams played a key role in the creation of the Libra Association and the Libra Blockchain, working with the other Founding Members

Libra Blockchain:

  • Designing and using the new programming language called ‘Move’.
  • Using a Byzantine Fault Tolerant (BFT) consensus approach.
  • Adopting and iterating on widely adopted blockchain data structures (Merkle Tree)

Launching Date:

The target launch in the first half of 2020.

Apple Card

(25 Mar 2019)

Apple Card is a new kind of credit introducing by this Summer by Apple with simplicity, transparency and privacy. This Apple card is in iPhone wallet app, you can buy things with this wallet app or use Apple‑designed titanium card anywhere in the world.

You can sign up in no time and start using it right away with Apple Pay.  For every purchase you make, you get Daily Cash. And it really is cash. So you can spend it however you want, right from your iPhone.

Apple partnered with Goldman Sachs and master card to issue the credit card for consumers. This is the first consumer credit card issued by Goldman Sachs.

Features:

  • Much more details about daily spending
  • Spending items arranged by Category (F&B, Entertainment, Shoping etc )
  • You get a percentage of your purchase back in Daily Cash, for each purchase.
  • No annual, cash‑advance, over-the-limit, or late fees
  • Estimate interest, during partial payment.
  • A new level of privacy and security

Blockchain

blocks

“Internet” was the most innovative technology in 20th Century, invented in 1990 by Tim Berners Lee. Currently, many researchers enthusiastically say that the “Blockchain” technology, the decentralized “digital ledger” system is an important invention in 21st century and it is the future.

Blockchain became most popular after invented the first crypto currency Bitcon in 2009 by Satoshi Nakamoto – is a pseudonym. Blockchain changes the software model from centralize to decentralize with its unique rich features: trust, immutable and secured.

 

What is Blockchain? 

past cannot

Hope you agree with the above unknown quote and it exactly suite for blockchain technology. Once record pushed in Blockchain, that past record cannot be changed, edited or deleted. Only you can add a new record in Blockchain.

Blockchain is a globally shared database and a distributed digital ledger that allows transactions to occur without a middleman such as government, bank, Credit Card Company, finance company etc. In Blockchain serious of records (Blocks) are linked and stored in cryptography method. Chain of blocks are created and stored in decentralized network. These blocks are not stored in centralized server nor controlled by an individual, it stored in decentralized system. There is no central database in blockchain technology. No one or group of people has the power to change or tamper the data in block chain technology.

 

Why Blockchain?

Blockchain is an extremely dynamic, fast growing and incredibly popular emerging technology in current market. Very soon Blockchain technology will replace most of the middlemen by automating business processes and the world will be running on Smart contracts. Blockchain technology can simplify, streamline, automate transactions and revolutionize many industries / sectors like Banking, Finance, Insurance, Logistics, Supply chain management, Medical & Healthcare, Government, Ecommerce, Media and Entertainment, Automotive sector and more.

 

How Blockchain works?

Blockchain is a distributed network and works in Peer to Peer Network with consensus mechanisms. The most popular consensus mechanisms are PoW (Proof of Work) and PoS (Proof of Stake).  The other types of consensus mechanisms are Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS), Proof of Importance (PoI), Multisignature/Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT), Federated Byzantine Agreement (FBA), Proof Of Capacity (POC), Proof Of Elapsed Time (POET) etc.

Bitcon uses PoW and Ethereum is going to use PoS (currently PoW) consensus mechanism to validate its transaction before add to the Blockchain network. Consensus mechanisms are most important in Blockchain in order to function correctly. Its responsibility is to make sure everyone use the same Blockchain network.  Also it make sure that each node in the network are connected with each other and agree on the transactions before add to the Blockchain network.

how

In Blockchain technology data stored with previous block Hash (Cryptographic method). It makes hard for anyone to tamper the data in Blockchain network.

When Bitcoin was released in 2009, people did not know how to use it and where it can be implemented, except booking keeping transactions. After a decade a unique platform created on the Blockchain network, it is called Ethereum. Ethereum is the first Blockchain based platform implemented the concept of Smart Contract.

Cloud Computing

cloud-computing-trends-2017-workloads-in -cloud

In IT industry, the most famous and attractive word after the “Internet” is “Cloud computing”. Cloud computing provides platform to store and access your files from anywhere, anytime and any device. Invention of internet is the base for development of Cloud Computing platform. Big companies are entered into the cloud computing market due its huge market share. Regardless of industries, all are using Cloud Computing services, due to its flexibility, scalability, reliability, simplicity, availability (24/7) and low cost.

Based on location service, there are three types of cloud computing services available in the market:

  • Private Cloud
  • Public Cloud
  • Hybrid Cloud

Private Cloud stores all your files stored in your own premises (onsite) and able to access your files anywhere, anytime with any devices. Ex. OwnCloud, Openstack, Cloudstack etc.

Public Cloud stores all your files in the remote locations (offsite) and able to access your files anywhere, anytime and any devices. Ex: Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, IBM Cloud etc

Hybrid Cloud stores your files in your own premises and remote locations. It consist of private cloud and public cloud. Ex. Healthcare Industries, Law industries etc.

Based on deployment service, there are several types of cloud computing  services available in the market:

  • IaaS (Infrastructure-as-a-Service)
  • SaaS (Software-as-a-Service)
  • PaaS (Platform-as-a-Service)

Security:

Security is an important and one of the main concern when discussing about cloud computing. Those are needed high security for their data use Private cloud due to the  server located in their own premises.  The mindset about the security is changing now a days. From small companies to big companies, they are ready to move forward towards the big companies cloud services, like Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud and IBM Cloud. All these big companies are following the cloud privacy and security frame work like

All cloud service providers are committed to complying with applicable data protection laws. Few frameworks which protect the customer and business owner data are as follows:

ISO 27017 is an international standard of practice for information security controls based on ISO/IEC 27002, specifically for cloud services.

ISO 27001 is one of the most widely recognized, internationally accepted independent security standards.

The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) SOC 2 (Service Organization Controls) and SOC 3 audit framework defines Trust Principles and Criteria for security, availability, processing integrity, and confidentiality.

ISO 27018 is an international standard of practice for protection of personally identifiable information (PII) in public cloud services.

The Privacy Shield Frameworks are designed to provide a mechanism to comply with data protection requirements when transferring personal data from the European Union and Switzerland to the United States in support of transatlantic commerce.

MIT Researchers created tiny magnetic Robot

MIT Researchers created tiny magnetic robots using 3-D printers and this Magnetic 3-D-printed structures crawl, roll, jump, and play catch. The movement of 3-D printed structures can be controlled using a wave of a magnet.

The researchers fabricated each structure from a new type of 3-D-printable ink that they infused with tiny magnetic particles. They fitted an electromagnet around the nozzle of a 3-D printer, which caused the magnetic particles to swing into a single orientation as the ink was fed through the nozzle. By controlling the magnetic orientation of individual sections in the structure, the researchers can produce structures and devices that can almost instantaneously shift into intricate formations, and even move about, as the various sections respond to an external magnetic field.

This new printing technique could be used to develop remotely controlled biomedical devices.

source: http://news.mit.edu/2018/magnetic-3-d-printed-structures-crawl-roll-jump-play-catch-0613#news-video-block

Gitlab.com is migrating from Azure to Google Cloud Platform (GCP)

Gitlab announced that Gitlab.com is migrating from Microsoft Azure to Google Cloud Platform to improve the performance and reliability of GitLab.com. Gitlab believes Kuberbetes is the future. It’s a technology that makes reliability at massive scale possible. They chosen GCP as their cloud provider because of desire to run GitLab on Kubernetes. Google invented Kubernetes, and GKE has the most robust and mature Kubernetes support. Migrating to GCP is the next step in their plan to make GitLab.com ready for your mission-critical workloads.

The migration is currently scheduled for Saturday, July 28, 2018.

New Certification from Google Cloud : Associate Cloud Engineer

GoogleCloudPlatform_128px_Retina Google Cloud Platform

Cloud is no longer an emerging technology. Now that businesses large and small are realizing the potential of cloud services, the need to hire individuals who can manage cloud workloads has sky-rocketed.

Google Cloud launched a new Associate Cloud Engineer certification, designed to address the growing demand for individuals with the foundational cloud skills necessary to deploy applications and maintain cloud projects on Google Cloud Platform (GCP).

The Associate Cloud Engineer certification joins Professional Cloud Architect, which launched in 2016, and Data Engineer, which followed quickly thereafter. These certifications identify individuals with the skills and experience to leverage GCP to overcome complex business challenges. Since the program’s inception, Google Cloud Certified has experienced continual growth, especially this last year when the number of people sitting for Google professional certifications grew by 10x. Because cloud technology affects so many aspects of an organization, IT professionals need to know when and how to use cloud tools in a variety of scenarios, ranging from data analytics to scalability.

For example, it’s not enough to launch an application in the cloud. Associate Cloud Engineers also ensure that the application grows seamlessly, is properly monitored, and readily managed by authorized personnel.

Internet Grows to 333.8 Million Domain Name Registrations — VeriSign

Ghost-3-Registering-DomainVeriSign, Inc. a global leader in domain names and internet security, announced that the first quarter of 2018 closed with approximately 333.8 million domain name registrations across all top-level domains (TLDs), an increase of approximately 1.4 million domain name registrations, or 0.4 percent, compared to the fourth quarter of 2017. Domain name registrations have grown by approximately 3.2 million, or 1.0 percent, year over year.

The .com and .net TLDs had a combined total of approximately 148.3 million domain name registrations in the domain name base at the end of the first quarter of 2018, with an increase of approximately 1.9 million domain name registrations, or 1.3 percent, compared to the fourth quarter of 2017. The .com and .net TLDs had a combined increase of approximately 4.6 million domain name registrations, or 3.2 percent, year over year.

New .com and .net domain name registrations totalled approximately 9.6 million at the end of the first quarter of 2018, compared to 9.5 million domain name registrations for the first quarter of 2017.

Microsoft Surface Laptop

surface_L_Pivot-Burgundy-pos1_V1

Finally, Microsoft decided to sell their own branded laptop in the market, like apple and introduced ‘Surface Laptop’. Surface is laptop not tablet. Surface Laptop comes with four rich tone-on-tone colour combinations (Burgundy, Platinum, Cobalt Blue and Graphite Gold) and a clean, elegant design.

Surface Laptop is designed for Windows 10 S — streamlined for security and superior performance.  Applications are delivered via the Windows Store, ensuring that they’re Microsoft verified.

Surface Laptop is thin, light, and powerful, with luxurious touches and a perfect balance of performance, portability, and battery life.  Surface laptop is convenient for travelling due to its light weight 1.25 Kgs and better battery life of up to 14.5 hours.

Innovative style

Luxuriously durable

Easy to care for

A stunning screen that responds to your touch.

 

Screen Size                              :           13.5”

Screen Resolution                   :           2256×1504

Weight                                    :           1.25 Kgs

Storage                                    :           128GB, 256 GB or 512 GB

RAM                                        :           4GB,8GB or 16 GB

Battery Life                             :           Up to 14.5 Hours

surface_L_Pivot-Burgundy-pos2_V1

Features Price
Intel Core i5 US $999
128GB SSD
4GB RAM
Intel HD Graphics 620
Colour: Platinum

 

Features Price
Intel Core i5 US $1,299
256GB SSD
8GB RAM
Intel HD Graphics 620
Colour: Platinum / Burgundy / Cobalt Blue / Graphite Gold

 

Features Price
Intel Core i7 US $1,599
256GB SSD
8GB RAM
Intel Iris Plus / Graphics 640
Colour: Platinum

 

Features Price
Intel Core i7 US $2,199
512GB SSD
16GB RAM
Intel Iris Plus / Graphics 640
Colour: Platinum