To assess the state of adoption of machine learning (ML) and AI, we recently conducted a survey that garnered more than 11,000 respondents. As I pointed out in previous posts, we learned many companies are still in the early stages of deploying machine learning:
Companies cite “lack of data” and “lack of skilled people” as the main factors holding back adoption. In many instances, “lack of data” is literally the state of affairs: companies have yet to collect and store the data needed to train the ML models they desire. The “skills gap” is real and persistent.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 01-03-2019, 10:24 AM - Forum: Lounge
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Top 10 UK Games Chart: Red Dead Redemption 2 Ends 2018 At No.1
Red Dead Redemption 2 was one of the biggest games of 2018, and we now know it ended the year at the top of the UK sales chart. Rockstar's open-world PS4 and Xbox One game was the best-selling physical game in the UK's final trading week of the year after also topping the Christmas chart the week before.
No new titles entered the chart this week, though old faces do crop up: both Spyro Reignited Trilogy and Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy are in the top 10 at No.7 and No.9, respectively. The continued success of the '90s gaming mascots is an encouraging sign for Activision with Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled coming to Switch, PS4, and Xbox One in June.
You can read the full top 10 sales chart below, courtesy of UKIE and Chart-Track. Note this table does not include digital sales data, and so should not be considered representative of all UK game sales.
Video: This Pocket-Sized Portable Plays GameCube And Wii Games
Portable Wii consoles aren’t a new thing – we’ve seen one that fits inside a coat, lest we forget – but few fan-made mods come as elegantly packaged as this one.
The PiiWii Pocket is the creation of YouTuber Shank Mods, and uses actual Wii internals rather than emulation. It comes with a suite of controls, internal cooling and a rechargeable battery that offers around 4 hours of play – you can even use your Wii Remote with it to play motion-based titles.
Given the size of the unit, the optical media drive has had to go, and the PiiWii instead boots games from a USB thumb drive. The project is the culmination of three years of work, and while it’s a shame that we won’t be seeing this thing turn up on Amazon in the near future, you have to admire this guy’s craft.
It’s not the first time he’s modded a Wii, either – check out the Kill Mii below.
Today, video game designer and director Goichi Suda – best known under the name ‘Suda51’ – is celebrating his 51st birthday. We couldn’t just let that slip by without a quick mention, right?
Suda51 first found his way into the video game development world as a designer at Human Entertainment, a Japanese studio which eventually declared bankruptcy at the turn of the millennium. His best-known work, however, has come from his own company Grasshopper Manufacture, which he founded after leaving Human in 1998.
Since then, Grasshopper has developed numerous games across PlayStation 2, GameCube, Nintendo DS, Wii, and more, with titles like The Silver Case, Killer7, and the No More Heroes series being particularly notable. His work is known for going against the norms of development, often using particularly striking visuals or gameplay styles that make his games instantly recognisable.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 01-03-2019, 10:24 AM - Forum: Windows
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MyAnalytics, the fitness tracker for work, now more broadly available
MyAnalytics—the fitness tracker for work—is now available to everyone using Office 365 and Microsoft 365 Enterprise and Business suites that include Exchange Online. Previously, MyAnalytics was only available with an Enterprise E5 plan or as an add-on to E1 and E3 plans.
Via a personal dashboard, an Outlook add-in, and weekly emails, MyAnalytics summarizes how you spend your time at work, then suggests ways to work smarter—from cutting unproductive meeting time to reducing time spent working after hours. It even uses artificial intelligence (AI) to help you stay on top of your to-dos by flagging commitments you’ve made in email.
The MyAnalytics dashboard.
New insights give a more complete picture of how you spend time at work
As we continue to evolve the product, today we’re also making MyAnalytics insights more well-rounded. MyAnalytics currently provides insights based on time spent in Outlook emails and meetings, and Skype for Business calls and chats. This month, we’re adding new insights based on your Microsoft Teams calls and chats, as well as signals from documents you’re working on that are saved in OneDrive and SharePoint. With 329,000 organizations and 87 of the Fortune 100 using Teams, this takes us one step closer to providing you with a more complete picture of how you’re spending time at work.
MyAnalytics Outlook add-in and weekly email.
A recent Gallup study found that two-thirds of full-time employees say they experience burnout at work. Multiple factors are contributing to burnout—such as the increased pace of work, a rise in collaborative work like chats, emails, and meetings, and the continuing trend of technology blurring the lines between work and life. Our customers tell us they’re looking for ways to address these challenges by helping employees find time to focus, improve work-life balance, build better meeting habits, and create deeper connections with their colleagues. By making MyAnalytics features more broadly available to our millions of customers, it is our goal to make work days around the world a little more balanced and fulfilling.
Availability: MyAnalytics insights from Microsoft Teams and documents saved in OneDrive or SharePoint will begin rolling out to existing customers with MyAnalytics in January 2019. MyAnalytics features will start rolling out to the new suites in the next couple months. With today’s updates, MyAnalytics features are now available for Office 365 and Microsoft 365 suites: Business Essentials, Business Premium E1, E3, and E5 plans.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 01-03-2019, 08:50 AM - Forum: Lounge
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Blizzard hopes linked Battle.net accounts will solve toxic Twitch chats
Blizzard is looking to curb misbehaving Twitch users in the chats of its official Overwatch streams by requiring that chat participants link their Twitch and Battle.net accounts together before sending messages during a stream.
Blizzard describes the move as a new moderation program, and aims to give it a test run during the upcoming Overwatch Contenders quarterfinals from now through January 12, 2019.
In order to send a message in Twitch chat during the live-streamed events, viewers will have to log into their Twitch accounts and link their Battle.net accounts up through Twitch’s webpage, though it isn’t explicitly said what action, if any, Blizzard will take against misbehaving chatters following the Battle.net linkup.
In a blog post on the test, Blizzard says that the change hopes “to improve the viewer experience for the Overwatch Path to Pro ecosystem” and that the team will evaluate how, if at all, the requirement led to a “more positive viewing experience.”
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 01-03-2019, 04:21 AM - Forum: Lounge
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Bethesda Parent Company Trademarks A New Game Called "Deathloop"
Bethesda parent company ZeniMax has filed a trademark application for a new game called "Deathloop." The goods and services description in the trademark application filed with the United States Patent & Trademark Office on December 26, 2018 states that Deathloop could be an online-enabled mobile game. That's all there is to go on at this stage, however.
Trademark applications are not necessarily good predictors of future products, but they're still intriguing to look over and consider. ZeniMax originally filed a trademark application for Starfield back in 2013, and it wasn't until 2018 that the company officially announced Starfield as one of Bethesda Game Studios' next projects.
Bethesda enjoyed tremendous success with its first mobile game, Fallout Shelter, so it's no surprise that the company may be returning to that arena with a new game. Bethesda opened a new studio in Montreal back in 2015, and that branch was dedicated in part to mobile game development.
Bethesda did not respond to a request for comment outside of regular business hours.
A so-called death loop in a video game is when a game reloads after a save with players finding themselves thrust into a situation they can't get out of without dying. A death loop is also a problematic situation that can happen in kitesurfing. While we don't know what Bethesda's Deathloop video game is about, it's probably not related to kitesurfing.
It's also possible that Deathloop never becomes a video game, because it could be that Bethesda is merely trademarking the name to protect its potential future use.
Carry Your Switch Games In Style With This Cute Little Pokédex Game Card Case
As is usually the case with any major gaming console release, you can now find near-countless ways to carry around your Nintendo Switch and games. While there are plenty of traditional carry cases and accessories available for your console that give you more for your money, this little Pokédex design might just win any Pokémon fans over thanks to its pure quirkiness.
The case is made from aluminium and high-density cutting foam, with rubber slots protecting your Switch game cards from damage when taking them out and about. It stores six games in total and can either be tucked away in your pocket – just like you might with an actual Pokédex – or slotted into a larger carry case that houses your console.
The product is currently available on Amazon for $14.99, with shipping available to most places around the world. User reviews are limited in number at present, but those that have reviewed it appear to be showering the accessory with praise.
Do you like the design? Are you tempted to treat yourself to the case for your favourite games? Tell us below.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 01-03-2019, 04:21 AM - Forum: Windows
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5 tech decisions CEOs need to make in 2019
ByRalph Haupter, President, Microsoft Asia.This article was originally posted on LinkedIn.
As I look out at 2019, there’s certainly plenty to be optimistic about – revolutionary new technologies are fueling the 4th Industrial Revolution and positively impacting how we work, live, connect and play.
It’s exciting to see technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Mixed Reality (MR) and the Internet of Things (IoT) becoming key drivers for digital transformation and making a positive and lasting impact on our society and environment. In Australia, for example, the Department of Primary Industry and Resources for the Northern Territory Government is using AI and IoT to identify and analyze hundreds of precious fish species in one of Australia’s largest harbors. This massive undertaking will ensure fisheries’ resources are sustainably-managed, protected and developed for future generations.
In Australia, AI now automates the laborious process of counting local fish stock (Click here to read more)
Although there is good reason to be generally optimistic about economic and societal prospects for 2019, some business leaders have also confided in me that they see significant challenges ahead.
In particular, many industries are being disrupted, sometimes even revolutionized, by the adoption of digital technologies and processes, often bringing with them new and more agile competitive entrants to their industry.
How should established industry participants respond to these kinds of disruptive challenges?
In late 2018, Microsoft’s CEO, Satya Nadella, introduced the concept of “tech intensity”, where organizations can embark on accelerated digital transformation journeys by adopting technologies much faster than before and focusing on building their own digital capabilities.
In 2019, to help organizations embrace and drive “tech intensity”, here are five technology decisions that Asian CEOs should make as we enter the new year:
1.Modernize your data strategy: If we compare a digital organization to the human body, then data is the blood that provides nourishment and allows it to grow.
In large organizations across Asia Pacific, the challenge is often not about the availability of data, but the vast effort needed to manage the almost-uncontrollable growth of the organization’s data estate. For example, banks today need to track and analyze tremendous amount of unstructured data coming in from new channels such as connected devices, new customer touchpoints and 3rd party data flows. They also need to factor in additional resources to cope with increasing regulatory and compliance requirements.
CEOs need to prioritize the redefinition of their organization’s entire data strategy, from creating a secure platform to managing and harnessing data to creating a corporate culture where the workforce embraces data in their daily work. It is only with a sound data strategy that organizations can truly optimize new digital transformation technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence.
2. Accelerate full cloud adoption: There was a time, not that long ago, when CEOs would ask me: “Should we move our data to the cloud?”. Now, increasingly, they are asking: “Can we afford not to?” The question is not just one of economics (although, for most customers, the ROI of moving to the cloud are highly – and increasingly – compelling). They are also considering the risks of maintaining their own on-premise security data-centre infrastructure, including hardware, software, physical and operational security, hiring IT security experts and meeting statutory or industry standards and certifications. Many large customers now opt for a hybrid cloud strategy that combines both public and private cloud by allowing data and applications to be shared between them. This approach gives businesses the ability to seamlessly scale their on-premises infrastructure via the public cloud when required – without giving third-party datacenters access to the entirety of their data.
3. Workforce reskilling is a new CEO priority: Many of the CEOs I speak with are excited about AI’s potential to increase productivity, reduce costs and accelerate innovation. For example, Airdoc, a fast-growing start-up from China, uses AI to help detect medical problems by examining a patient’s eyes in less than a second. Its potential to transform patient care is limitless. But would healthcare organizations be able to seamlessly integrate Airdoc’s AI solution into healthcare professionals’ workflow if they do not have the necessary training?
CEOs need to focus increasingly on workforce reskilling in their digital transformation journey to ensure that their people and processes are aligned to optimize the new technology. Without that, AI projects are likely to fail because of the lack of digital expertise to utilize the technologies and the absence of data skills to derive actionable insights.
4. Cultivate a new digital mindset: To paraphrase Peter Drucker, culture eats technology for breakfast. No amount of new technology application will deliver an organization’s true digital transformation unless it is accompanied by a corresponding change in culture; one that embraces an open mindset and favors experimentation, learning and growth. At Microsoft, we laid this foundation over four years ago when we underwent our own transformation, focusing on creating a ‘learn-it-all’, rather than ‘know-it-all’, culture. This change in mindset enabled us to, for example, embrace a dramatic transformation of our business model.
(You can read more about how Microsoft has successfully transform in this Forbes feature story)
5. Trust defines the new digital organization: When it comes to customer trust, it has been said that it is often “earned in drips and lost in buckets”. Trust in your organization can take years to build and can be destroyed in a single moment. This ethos resonates particularly deeply in today’s digital world where organizations face mounting cyberthreats as well as evolving regulatory and ethical expectations when it comes to online transactions and handling of customer data.
Ultimately, the responsibility for the creation and maintenance of customer trust sits squarely with the CEO, who needs to ensure that all elements of trust – including security, privacy, reliability, transparency, compliance and ethics – are embedded into digital transformation initiatives right from the start.
Increasingly, CEOs also need to examine if their ecosystem of partners recognize and share the same trust principles as their own organization. Specifically, do the technology partners they entrust with their customer data have the same set of values, principles and policies – when it comes to the use of that data – as they do.
In summary, I believe that 2019 is the year of hyper digital transformation, where many business leaders will start to take quantum leaps in their response to a new digital economy. To do so, CEOs need imbue their organizations with ‘tech intensity’ by focusing on the five technology decisions that I have outlined.
The ONAP and OPNFV developer communities will be coming together for an ONAP DDF + ONAP Plugfest January 8-11, 2019 at the Nokia facility in Nozay, France. The ONAP community will be working toward the Dublin release while the OPNFV community will be focused on testing the Gambia release.
