Anaxi App Shows the State of Your Software Project
If you work within the world of software development, you’ll find yourself bouncing back and forth between a few tools. You’ll most likely use GitHub to host your code, but find yourself needing some task/priority software. This could be GitHub itself or other ones like Jira. Of course, you may also find yourself collaborating on several tools, like Slack, and several projects. Considering that it’s already hard to keep track of the progress on one of your projects, working across several of them becomes a struggle. This problem gets worse as you move up the ranks of management where it becomes increasingly difficult to assimilate and rationalize all of this information. To help combat this, Anaxi was created to help give you all the information on the state and progress of your projects in one single interface.
Why measure dev progress?
According to LinkedIn data, there are currently over 3,000 software engineers employed on average at Fortune 4,000 companies. So, how do those companies measure the progress of their software projects and the performance of their teams? After all, you can’t manage what you don’t measure, so the best of them will manually compute portions of this data on a weekly basis. This turns into a tedious and time-consuming task. In fact, this directly impacts your bottom line. Anaxi cuts out this task and may significantly improve software development efficiency within organizations. Teams will know the impact of any process change, which task they should focus on, and whether or not to anticipate any bottlenecks. This also helps reduce the loss in revenue due to shipping critical issues. According to Tricentis, there was a total of $1.7T loss in revenue in 2017 alone due to software failures and poor bug prioritization.
What is Anaxi?
Anaxi currently offers a free iPhone app that provides the full picture of your GitHub projects to help you understand and manage them better. Anaxi has a lot of features based on what they call reports. Reports are lists of issues or pull requests that you can filter as you see fit using labels, state, milestone, authors, assignees, and more. This allows you to monitor those critical bugs or see the progress of your team’s work. For each project, you can select the people on your team so you can easily see what each person is doing and help where help is needed most. It can also be used to keep track of your own work and priorities, and because it’s an iPhone app, it grants quick access to issues and pull requests that have been assigned. There’s also a customizable color indicator for report deadlines that will help you prioritize what to work on.
How to set up the app
First, you’ll need an iPhone and access to the app store. Go into the App Store and download it. Once you open the app, the landing page will appear.
To get started, press on the Connect GitHub button on the bottom of the screen and enter your GitHub credentials. Next, you’ll be asked to select projects that you want to monitor. Anaxi will automatically select some projects. There is a button you can press to edit this list at the bottom that allows you to add or remove projects from this list. If you forget a project, or realize that you don’t want to monitor a project anymore, you can change it once the initial setup is over.
When you have your projects selected, hit the Next button. It’s time to select your team. Anaxi will start by automatically selecting people that you interact with the most with for the projects you selected. Just like the previous step, you can edit this list by pressing the button at the bottom and you can add or remove team members later.
Next, you will be prompted to help set up the reports for your projects. Anaxi will also start by automatically choosing labels that are most used, but you can customize which labels you want to monitor by clicking the button at the bottom of each project. Later on, you can create more tailored reports by adding issue or pull request reports when inside of a project folder.
Now, Anaxi is set up and a view of reports appears. Mine are all green because I don’t have any activity on my selected projects. From this menu, you can see which projects have pull requests at the top. Clicking on these will pull up open tickets on these projects. If you scroll down, you can see all the pull requests and issues that are assigned to you and your team. Then you can see individual views near the bottom for all of your projects. The order of these can be changed at any time by hitting the edit button in the top right and dragging the folders around.
Let’s choose an open-source project and see what it looks like when more people are working together and there are more issues and pull requests. For this example, let’s use kubernetes/kubernetes. As you can see below, Anaxi created a report for the new project, and added it to the current full report that already existed. Now that there is a more active GitHub project present in my reports, we can see the full extent of Anaxi in action.
To edit any part of the reports, simply click on that section, and then click on the edit button in the top right. Once there, you can change filters and if you scroll to the bottom, you can change the values for when an aspect of a report displays green, yellow or red.
My experience
After using Anaxi for a little while, scrolling through my GitHub Projects doesn’t feel like a chore anymore. It’s easy to choose one project and see everything that I want to see. One thing that was slightly bothersome is every time you click on a project, it has to read the GitHub API instead of holding on to it. This results in some wait time when you are trying to switch back and forth between multiple projects in quick succession, but that’s the only downside I’ve seen so far. Changing the colors or filters on aspects of reports is surprisingly easy and intuitive. Another thing I like is that you can create a due date for a certain issue or pull request. This is great when you want to build in dates into your projects. I feel like this would really help me when I want to prioritize certain things, instead of creating Google Calendar notifications, I can do this on the project directly.
So far, I haven’t worked on any project that’s been bigger than 4 people, so it hasn’t helped me that much… yet. As I move forward in my career and work on projects with more and more people and deadlines, I feel like Anaxi will become a go-to product for me. The ability to see everything so easily and the customizability really draws me in and makes me love the product and see myself using it in the future.
What’s coming next
Anaxi currently offers an iPhone app, but don’t fret if you are a web user. The plan for Anaxi is to work on integration with Jira next to help with the technology gap between managing project and managing code. After that is completed, they are planning on creating a web app, followed by Android, and ending with native desktop apps.
This article was produced in partnership with Holberton School.
Starlink: Battle For Atlas is now available on PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. This game lets you pilot a space ship through a massive solar system, landing on and exploring seven varied planets aswarm with enemies. The game itself is like a family-friendly No Man's Sky mixed with Star Fox (in fact, the Switch version even has a Star Fox crossover).
It also features a whole toys-to-life aspect that lets you change out parts of your in-game ship just by swapping pieces of a toy line that launches alongside the game. These can get kind of confusing, but we'll guide you through the whole line of toys below.
If you're ready to buy Starlink: Battle for Atlas, you may have a few questions about how it all works and what you'll need. You can relax and read on because we have you covered below.
Starlink: Battle for Atlas Starter Edition
The starter edition of Starlink: Battle for Atlas comes with everything you need to play the game. You get a ship, a controller mount, a pilot, three weapons, and a poster. once you have that, you're all set.
The game is also available from digital stores in both standard and deluxe editions. These versions don't come with any accompanying toys, but they're still fully playable because you can swap out pilots and ship parts from an in-game menu. The deluxe edition comes with digital versions of all of the ships, pilots, and weapons.
Each starship pack costs $25 and comes with a ship, a pilot, and a weapon. The packs aren't console-specific, so they'll work with any version of the game.
Co-op packs are just controller mounts you can clip onto second controller to play with another person locally. They each cost $20, and all ships, weapons, and pilots are sold separately.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 10-17-2018, 08:42 PM - Forum: Windows
- No Replies
Microsoft Store releases top cybersecurity tips for small business owners
October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month, and Microsoft Store is committed to helping small business owners understand the dangers of cyberattacks and the actionable steps they can take to mitigate cyber threats.
Getting hacked is a scary threat, yet most small business owners don’t think they’re at risk.
Nearly 82 percent[1] of small business owners think their business does not have data that hackers would be interested in stealing, yet 61 percent[2] have suffered a cyberattack and over half[3] have had a data breach.
What’s even scarier than not knowing your business is vulnerable to a cyberattack is finding out your business has been hacked.
Identifying Vulnerabilities
Small business owners may not know the appropriate steps to protect themselves, and others may find the topic can be daunting.
This was the case for Quants Bakery, a six-employee catering and subscription-based vegan bakery in Glendora, California. Sean Etesham, CEO, started the online-based business in September 2017 after he saw a need for more vegan options at his local coffee shops. Like so many first-time small business owners who are strapped for resources, he launched the business and operated it without a dedicated IT person or cybersecurity software.
“Our worst nightmare would be if someone broke into the back end …and took all of the customer credit card information…and posted it online,” shared Sean.
Microsoft Store recently teamed up with a Microsoft cybersecurity expert to take Sean and his now CIO, Richard Idigo, through a lifelike simulation of a common phishing scam, giving them a firsthand look at the damage that can be done in mere minutes. Sean and Richard were shocked at how easily a hacker can create a false site to access passwords and compromise their data.
“I’ve made a lot of sacrifices in terms of my time and energy that could’ve been spent elsewhere,” explained Sean about starting his business. “I cashed out my retirement accounts, and my investment accounts, and put all that money towards the business.”
Any small business owner can attest that success and health of their business is of utmost importance, so addressing cybersecurity vulnerabilities should be a top concern.
The simulation helped Sean to understand the type of security protections and other actions he needed to have in place to safeguard his business and avoid phishing attacks. He worked with a business solutions specialist at Microsoft Store to decide on Microsoft 365 Business as the right solution for their productivity, collaboration, and security needs.
By understanding cybersecurity risk factors, every small business owner can put an affordable, actionable plan in place to mitigate risk and save time and money it takes to recover from a breach.
Addressing Vulnerabilities
Many small business owners do not have IT departments to turn to in the case of a cybersecurity emergency. During National Cyber Security Awareness Month, Microsoft Store is offering small business owners the opportunity to understand the risks of cyberattacks and will be the go-to destination for personalized guidance from in-store business solutions specialists.
If you’re a small business owner, visit Microsoft Store and online to discover cybersecurity solutions like Microsoft 365 Business that are customized for the needs of small businesses to more effectively navigate the cybersecurity landscape and mitigate cyber risks.
NBA arcade action is back with NBA 2K Playgrounds 2. The sequel takes street balling to the next level with an expansive roster of current and retired NBA players, improved online matchmaking with dedicated servers, four-player online matches, three-point contests, new playgrounds, custom matches, and more. Pick your team, get ready to jam, and Ball Without Limits.
Starlink: Battle for Atlas is an action-adventure game through which you assemble a custom Starship model mounted to your game controller to launch into an interplanetary adventure. Lead a group of heroic interstellar pilots who use modular starships to mix and match their unique gear and skills on the fly. Travel the stars to unite the galaxy against villainous destructive forces. Modular, customizable starships: Mix and match pilots, hulls, wings, and weapons to assemble the starship of your dreams with a level of customization and creativity. Changes to your physical ship instantly appear in-game allowing you to immediately jump into the battle. Starships at your fingertips - Take control of your starship in a whole new way. Your custom starship attaches directly to your game controller as you pilot through Atlas. Open, living star system - Travel seamlessly through the vast exotic alien worlds of the Atlas Star System, full of unique challenges to discover and overcome. Explore 7 massive unique planets and space. Plus, fly directly from the planet into space for more battles and back to another world. Creative combat - Build your unique play style. Experiment with different pilot abilities and weapons to discover and unleash devastating combos upon your enemies and overcome deadly challenges. [Ubisoft]
The Netflix Marvel superhero universe has had its ups and downs, and nothing can really make up for how bad Iron Fist Season 1 was, and what it did to The Defenders. But sometimes when you hit rock bottom, there's a silver lining: There's no direction to go but up. The Punisher was pretty good, Luke Cage Season 2 was a step in the right direction, and even Iron Fist Season 2 was watchable. Now that we've mostly forgotten about Jessica Jones Season 2, it's time to return to where it all started: Daredevil. And you know what? It's good to be back.
Daredevil Season 3 has a lot preceding it, but except where it's relevant to Matt Murdock's story, it mostly ignores what's come before. In the first six episodes, which were sent to press ahead of time, there's no mention of Jessica, Luke, Danny, or The Hand. Even Elektra is just a memory, albeit one that haunts Matt still.
Daredevil Season 3 is about rebuilding. Matt (Charlie Cox) suffered his most emotionally and physically devastating defeat yet when an entire building fell on him at the end of Defenders, and he's forced to find the time and will to heal on multiple fronts. Fisk (Vincent D'Onofrio) has a scheme to get out of prison, but he puts himself at great risk to pull it off. Foggy (Elden Henson) and Karen (Deborah Ann Woll) are still dealing with the fact that Matt is gone, trying to put the pieces of their lives together without their best friend. Naturally, his eventual return in Season 3 will only complicate things further.
To fans, it's no secret that Matt survived the events of Defenders. He spends much of Daredevil Season 3's first half recuperating in the basement of the Catholic orphanage where he was raised, tended to by a nun who may or may not be his mother (in the comics she is; it hasn't yet been made clear in the show). At the season's start, his hearing has suffered, and without it his "sight" has also waned. An early season boxing match puts Daredevil's brutality, the actors' impressive physicality, and Matt's threshold for punishment all on display. Daredevil spends plenty of time wallowing in Matt's well earned nihilism, but even then it can be a joy to watch.
Fisk, meanwhile, proves to be the manipulative villain we remember him as from Daredevil Season 1. He flips and turns FBI informant, snitching on New York's Albanian mob and almost getting himself offed in the process. That triggers a transfer out of prison and into a cushy high-rise, "for his own safety," of course. He claims to be doing it all for Vanessa--played by Ayelet Zurer in Season 1, though she's yet to reappear in Season 3--but with the Kingpin, there's always the sense that there's more going on than we're ever made aware of. No doubt that shoe will drop before Season 3 is over.
Fisk's recruitment of crack shot FBI agent Benjamin "Dex" Poindexter--who we know from the comics as Bullseye--only begins to see its full payoff by the time Season 3 is halfway through. But Dex gradually proves himself to be a dangerous presence, an obsessive sociopath with perfect aim who was taught as a child to blend in with society. When the cracks in his "normal" life start to shake his foundations, Fisk knows exactly how to dig his fingers in deep.
The news of Fisk's "release" doesn't go over well in Hell's Kitchen, and protesters keep vigil outside his suite, adding to the feeling that this is all leading somewhere topical. Foggy and Karen fight back in their own ways--still working at the Bulletin, Karen starts investigating what Fisk is really up to, while Foggy attempts to get at him through legal means.
That's all to say that Daredevil Season 3 puts the focus where it belongs: on Matt, Fisk, Foggy, and Karen, the core characters that we originally grew to love or hate back in Season 1. With that re-anchoring comes some really cool stylistic choices; there's an entire sequence that plays out in black and white, half flashbacks, half imaginings, with one character walking back through another's life as he strives to learn everything he might use to his advantage. And there's a single-shot fight scene in these first half dozen episodes that's unbelievably impressive, easily rivaling any action that's come before in the whole Netflix Marvel universe.
So yeah, Daredevil is back. And thanks to its much needed laser focus on the characters and stories fans actually care about, you don't even need to be caught up; If you watched Daredevil Season 1 and then stopped, you could pick up again right at the start of Season 3. That definitely says something about how forgettable much of what came in the interim was. But regardless of where you've been all this time, Daredevil Season 3 is worth returning for.
Arm Launches Mbed Linux and Extends Pelion IoT Service
Politics and international relations may be fraught with acrimony these days, but the tech world seems a bit friendlier of late. Last week Microsoft joined the Open Invention Network and agreed to grant a royalty-free, unrestricted license of its 60,000-patent portfolio to other OIN members, thereby enabling Android and Linux device manufacturers to avoid exorbitant patent payments. This week, Arm and Intel kept up the happy talk by agreeing to a partnership involving IoT device provisioning.
Arm’s recently announced Pelion IoT Platform will align with Intel’s Secure Device Onboard (SDO) provisioning technology to make it easier for IoT vendors and customers to onboard both x86 and Arm-based devices using a common Peleon platform. Arm also announced Pelion related partnerships with myDevices and Arduino (see farther below).
In another nod to Intel, Arm unveiled a new, IoT focused Mbed Linux OS distribution that combines the Linux kernel with tools and recipes from the Intel-backed Yocto Project. The distro also integrates security and IoT connectivity code from its open source Mbed RTOS.
When Pelion was announced, Arm mentioned cross-platform support, but there were few details. Now with the Intel SDO deal and the launch of Mbed Linux OS, Arm has formally expanded Pelion from an MCU-only IoT data aggregation platform to one that supports more advanced x86 and Cortex-A based systems.
Mbed Linux OS
The early stage Mbed Linux OS will be released by the end of the year as an invitation-only developer preview. Both the OS source code and related test suites will eventually be open sourced.
In the Mbed Linux OS announcement, Arm’s Mark Wright pitches the distro as a secure, IoT focused “sibling” to the Cortex-M focused Mbed that is designed for Cortex-A processors. Arm will support Mbed Linux with its MCU-oriented Mbed community of 350,000 developers and will offer support for popular Linux development boards and modules. The Softbank-owned company will also supply optional commercial support.
Like Mbed, Mbed Linux will be “deeply integrated” with the Pelion IoT System in order “to simplify lifecycle management.” The Pelion support provides device provisioning, connectivity, and updates, thereby enabling development teams to update the OS and the applications independently, says Wright. Working with the Pelion Device Management Application, Mbed Linux OS can “simplify in-field provisioning and eradicate the need for legacy serial connections for initial device configuration,” says Arm.
Mbed Linux will support Arm’s Platform Security Architecture and hardware based TrustZone security to enable secure, signed boot and signed updates. It will also enable deployment of applications in secure, OCI-compliant containers.
Arm did not specify which components of the Yocto Project code it would integrate with Mbed. In late August, Arm and Facebook joined Intel and TI as Platinum members of the Yocto Project. The Linux Foundation hosted project was launched by Intel but is now widely used on Arm as well as x86 based IoT devices.
Despite common references to “Yocto Linux,” Yocto Project is not a distribution, but rather a collection of open source templates, tools, and methods for creating custom embedded Linux-based systems. A Yocto foundation underlies most major commercial Linux distributions such as Wind River Linux and Mentor Embedded Linux and is often spun into custom builds by DIY developers, especially for resource constrained IoT devices.
We saw no mention of a contribution for the Arm-backed Linaro initiative for either Mbed Linux or Pelion. Linaro, which oversees the 96Boards project, develops open source embedded Linux and Android software components. The Yocto and Linaro projects were initially seen as rivals, but they have grown increasingly complementary. Linaro’s Arm toolchain can be used within Yocto Project, as well as with the related OpenEmbedded build environment and Bitbake build engine.
Developers can sign up for the limited number of invites to participate in the upcoming developer preview of Mbed Linux OS here.
Arm’s Pelion partnerships
Arm’s Pelion IoT Platform will soon run on devices with Intel’s recently launched Secure Device Onboard (SDO) service, enabling customers to deploy both Arm and x86 based systems controlled by the common Pelion platform. “We believe this collaboration is a big step forward for greater customer choice, fewer device SKUs, higher volume and velocity through IoT supply chains and lower deployment cost,” says Arm.
The SDO “zero-touch onboarding service” depends on Intel Enhanced Privacy ID (EPID) data embedded in chips to validate and provision IoT devices automatically. SDO automatically discovers and provisions compliant devices during installation. This “late binding” approach reduces provisioning times from 20 minutes to an hour to a few minutes, says Intel.
Unlike PKI based authentication methods, “SDO does not insert Intel into the authentication path.” Instead, it brokers a rendezvous URL to the Intel SDO service where Intel EPID opens a private authentication channel between the device and the customer’s IoT platform.
The Pelion IoT Platform offers its own scheme for provisioning and configuration of devices using cryptographic identities built into Cortex-M MCUs running Mbed. With the new Mbed Linux, Pelion will also be able to accept devices that run on Cortex-A chips with TrustZone security.
Pelion combines Arm’s Mbed Cloud connected Mbed IoT Device Management Platform with technologies it acquired via two 2018 acquisitions. The new Treasure Data unit supplies data management services to Pelion. Meanwhile, Stream Technologies provides Pelion managed gateway services for wireless technologies including cellular, LoRa, and satellite communications.
The partnership with myDevices extends Pelion support to devices that run myDevices’ new IoT in a Box turnkey IoT software for LoRa gateways and nodes. myDevices, which is known for its Linux- and Arduino-friendly Cayenne drag-and-drop IoT development and management platform, launched IoT in a Box to enable easy set up a LoRa gateway and LoRa sensor nodes. Different IoT in a Box versions target specific applications ranging from home and building management to storage lockers to refrigeration systems. Developers can try out Pelion services together with IoT in a Box for a new, $199 IoT Starter Kit.
The Arduino partnership is a bit less clear. It appears to extend Arm’s Pelion Connectivity Management stack, based on the Stream Technologies acquisition, to Arduino devices. The partnership gives users the option of selecting “competitive global data plans” for cellular service, says Arm.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 10-17-2018, 02:23 PM - Forum: Windows
- No Replies
Online scammers cost time and money. Here’s how to fight back
Microsoft has partnered with AARP since 2015 to build awareness around tech support scams and has developed a joint booklet encouraging AARP members to report these incidents.
“One of the reasons we’re thrilled to be working with Microsoft is that it’s one thing for law enforcement to give advice for crime prevention, but when Microsoft says they don’t initiate these calls, it’s very powerful,” Shadel says.
But anyone can fall prey to these schemes.
Similar to the 2016 results, Generation Z and Millennials fall prey to tech support scams more often, and also men. They may be more likely to engage in riskier online behavior, such as visiting torrent sites and giving up their email in exchange for downloading videos or images. But because they can be more familiar with technology companies than older generations, it may lead to overconfidence in their web and device expertise.
Each month, Microsoft receives about 11,000 complaints from people across the globe who have been the victim of a tech support scam with fraudsters pretending to be from reputable tech companies, including Microsoft, Dell and Apple.
To help protect consumers from online scams, Windows includes security features and updates with free real-time protection, and the SmartScreen filter built into Microsoft Edge helps protect against malicious pop-ups. In addition, the Bing Ads team took action to block 25 million ads in the tech scam category in 2017 as part of its ad quality work.
Microsoft also fights back through advanced analytics and investigations of thousands of customer complaints received annually, thanks to its Digital Crimes Unit, which identifies key players perpetrating these scams. Collaborating with enforcement agencies globally, they take action to disrupt these fraudulent enterprises and hold them accountable under the law.
For example, Microsoft provided critical information for the May 2017 sweeping enforcement action “Operation Tech Trap” in which the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and law enforcement partners announced 16 new actions against tech support fraudsters. While the UK National Fraud Investigative Bureau reports the number of instances of consumers reporting tech support scams using the Microsoft brand has dropped from 76 percent to 17 percent after a string of successful joint Microsoft and law enforcement operations.
It’s not out on mobile yet, but Bad North is looking pretty great
By Joe Robinson16 Oct 2018
Whether or not we get Bad North on mobile this year remains to be seen – it seems to have been swept up in the Switch-mania, so Nintendo’s handheld superstar is probably going to have to fend off viking incursions before us iOS or Android vets even spot the sails on the horizon.
What’s not in question though is how good the game is. In case you didn’t spot it, the long-awaited micro-strategy game has released today on PC. Not via Steam, interestingly enough, but via Discord’s own storefront, which also went live today.
Bad North is a unique take on a challenging real-time strategy game, simply by virtue of its simplicity. Giving a nod to games like Into the Breach and Kingdom: New Lands, as oppressive difficulty ramps up slowly over time, the actual game-play behind positioning your units, issuing commands, and using special abilities remains relatively stable. While the initial set of islands comes off as a relaxing take on zone defense, later missions can quickly devolve into chaos at a moment’s notice. They bill themselves as a ‘micro-strategy’ game, but this is secretly a roguelike that will satiate both RTS newcomers and grizzled virtuosos.
I’ve even taken it for a spin myself and can confirm there is calming simplicity to what it asks of you, and yet defending your chosen island from the heathens is no simple feat, especially as the game progresses. The main thing we’ll want to watch out for when the game does eventually hit mobile is how well the touch controls work. The key movement concerns are being able to rotate your island with ease, select the unit you want with minimum fuss, and then send them to their destination with accuracy.
History Hides Away More Than One Truth... SOULCALIBUR VI represents the latest entry in the premier weapons-based, head-to-head fighting series and continues the epic struggle of warriors searching for the legendary Soul Swords. Taking place in the 16th century, revisit the events of the original SOULCALIBUR to uncover hidden truths. [Bandai Namco]
