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“Instead of using technology to automate processes, think about using technology to enhance human interaction.” ~ Tony Zambito, Lead authority in Buyer Personas.

Do you know ~ according to research, 93% of customers make purchase decisions based on visual appearance. Visual elements of your brand are the key deciding factors for a majority of potential customers.

Your logo, website colors, chatbot texts, etc all have an impact on the psychology of people who come across them. Some colors or features attract them and some make them leave your website instantly.

In this era, interactive features with the help of technologies like Artificial intelligence are enhancing such effects. AI has the power to add interactive elements to your presentation. This creates a connection between your company and its customers.

1984, Orwell’s prophetic year of Big Brother, saw the release of the Mac which broke the idea that centralised control could ever be what it was before. That year also saw the first workable prototype for a 3D printer. Built by Charles Hull, the technology was then known as stereolithography. We know it as 3D printing, and that’s a term that covers a variety of different processes which may revolutionise all stages of the global manufacturing and distributing process. In that very science-fictional year, Hull set off a revolution that is only now seeing fruition. 3D printing continues to threaten the social and economic structures which preceded it. When we speak about 3D printing, we’re speaking of a general technique of successive printing layers to form a three-dimensional object at the end. From powder to paper to human tissue, these thin membranes are laid down like the construction of a plaster mask. From that simple concept, the 3D printer offers the reverse of Ford’s mass production revolution. Printing one item is now as cost-effective in some cases as manufacturing a thousand items in the traditional way.

The computer powers 3d printing with printable files known as STLs, guiding the printers themselves as they construct, from the ground up, plastic homunculi that would awe medieval alchemists. It’s not quite the replicator from Star Trek, but it’s in the same Galaxy Class Starship.

Our 3D printing future, however, isn’t liable to look like the utopian ideals Gene Roddenberry envisioned. Instead, we will see both positive and negative outcomes from these machines as the world finds ways to employ the emergent technology.

Guerillas in the Powdery Mist

Are you ready to get started with 3D printing but just aren’t sure about what filament you’re using? You’re definitely not alone because with the multitude of different filaments out there it can really get complicated. You find yourself overwhelmed while you’re trying to research because it seems like everyone has a different idea of what the best option is and it can easily seem like you’re being pulled in different directions. So, let’s take a closer look at how you can make the right decision.

There are numerous benefits provided by blockchain technology for sports betting software. The nine key benefits are detailed below.

Security of Blockchain

When this technology is integrated into sports betting software, there is a permanent and unchangeable record in the transaction ledger providing transparency. Sportsbooks must be certain their betting data is delivered safely with all bets resolved correctly and quickly. This technology provides significantly better protection through the use of smart contracts. Decentralized actors handle the wagers with the smart contracts being executed automatically. Publicly written data cannot be altered. The complex system of the past is simplified and performed for much less than the traditional costs. Blockchain Development Services, Blockchain Solutions are paramount not only in sports betting but every aspect of the new business world. Blockchain technology experts integrate cryptocurrency payment solutions, program smart contracts, and engineer blockchain networks and apps.

This provides better protection, flawless bet execution, enhanced data security, and complete information transparency. The use of cryptocurrency significantly decreases the fees for payment processing. This reduces the margins for the sportsbook while offering players an increased chance to win. Once the bets have been resolved with a smart contract, the funds will be in the wallet of the better for almost immediate withdrawal. Any issues for even larger amounts are eliminated due to cryptocurrency payouts.

A palette makes it easy for painters to arrange and mix paints of different colors as they create art on the canvas before them. Having a similar tool that could allow AI to jointly learn from diverse data sources such as those for conversations, narratives, images, and knowledge could open doors for researchers and scientists to develop AI systems capable of more general intelligence.


A palette allows a painter to arrange and mix paints of different colors. SpaceFusion seeks to help AI scientists do similar things for different models trained on different datasets.

Recently, a colleague asked me in a chat:

— Is there an article how to pack servers into the racks properly?

I realised that I'm unaware of it. So, I decided to write my text.

Firstly, this is an article about bare metal servers in the data centre (DC) facilities. Secondly, we estimate that there are a lot of servers (hundreds or thousands); the article doesn't make sense for fewer quantities. Thirdly, we consider that there are three constraints in the racks: physical space, electric power per each one, and cabinets stay in the rows adjacent to each other, so we can use a single ToR switch to connect servers in them.

Chapter 2.
(the link to Chapter 1)

The Art of Designing Road Networks

Transport problems of a city through the eyes of a Computer Scientist

If I were recommended an article with the title “The Art of Designing Road Networks,” I would immediately ask how many road networks were built with the participation of its author. I must admit, my professional activity was far from road construction and was recently associated with the design of microprocessors where I, among other responsibilities, was engaged in the resource consumption of data switching. At that time my table stood just opposite the panoramic window which opened up a beautiful view of the long section of the Volgograd Highway and part of the Third Transport Ring with their endless traffic jams from morning to evening, from horizon to horizon. One day, I had a sudden shock of recognition: “The complexities of the data switching process that I struggle with on a chip may be similar to the difficulties the cars face as they flow through the labyrinth of road network”.
Probably, this view from the outside and the application of methods that were not traditional for the area in question gave me a chance to understand the cause of traffic jams and make recommendations on how to overcome the problem in practice.

There was a time when moving from one place to another was a matter of utility. People did not Care About Us lyrics like comfort. Public transportation was dominating the landscape of movement and private transport was considered a luxury.

Today, we live in a world where people expect more than just the movement. They do not want to compromise on the aspects of comfort and convenience. They would like to be picked up from their doorstep and they would like to be dropped precisely in the place that they want to be.

These transformations have given rise to the business of ride-hailing. There are a lot of companies that provide the service of transportation by picking people from one place and dropping them in a place of their choice.

The constructive onslaught of Smartphones enabled with GPS made the business of ride-hailing efficient, profitable and delightful to the customer.

Blockchain oracles resolve the issue of delivering external data to the blockchain – but we still need to know which of them we can trust.

Earlier, I have introduced the Ontology Smart Contract in
Part 1: Blockchain & Block API and
Part 2: Storage API
Part 3: Runtime API
Today, let’s talk about how to invoke an Ontology native smart contract through the Native API. One of the most typical functions of invoking native contract is asset transfer.

You’re utterly focused. You’ve lost track of time. Nothing else in the world exists. You’re living in the moment.

While this might sound like meditation, it’s a description that can also be applied to the state of flow – the feeling of being so engaged by your work, that you lose yourself to it completely, while massively increasing your productivity in the process.

It’s the holy grail that we all strive for, whether it’s a hobby we’re passionate about, or a project at work. Achieving our best and utilising our maximum potential at all times, can however, be a struggle.
We had the pleasure of talking with Dr. Jack Lewis, a neuroscientist with a passion for exploring how our minds work, to see what motivates us to do our best work, and the important roles that workplace environments, culture, and technology can play.

Introduction

Earlier, I have introduced the Ontology Smart Contract in
Part 1: Blockchain & Block API and
Part 2: Storage API
Now when you have an idea about how to call the relevant API for persistent storage when developing Python smart contract on Ontology, let’s go on to Runtime API (Contract Execution API). The Runtime API has 8 related APIs that provide common interfaces for contract execution and help developers get, convert, and validate data. Here’s a brief description of these 8 APIs:

This is an official tutorial published earlier on Ontology Medium blog
Excited to publish it for Habr readers. Feel free to ask any related questions and suggest a better format for tutorial materials

Foreword

Earlier, in Part 1, we introduced the Blockchain & Block API of Ontology’s smart contract. Today we will discuss how to use the second module: Storage API. The Storage API has five related APIs that enable addition, deletion, and changes to persistent storage in blockchain smart contracts. Here’s a brief description of the five APIs:

Considering ever-rising e-commerce sales, which hit $29 trillion last year, companies can no longer neglect online presence. Many of them have already changed the way they work and transformed from simple online stores to marketplaces bringing more sales and opportunities.

Those who’ve chosen the path of transformation or want to build a marketplace are probably seeking for experienced service providers to get some help.

Since there are hundreds of development companies all over the world, I decided to research the market and narrow down the circle of providers you might want to consider for partnership.

To compile this list the following factors were considered:

• Overall number of customer reviews on such reputable platforms as Clutch, Upwork, GoodFirms, App Futura, Extract.co, IT Firms.
• Overall score of those reviews.
• Presence of Fortune 500 clients in the public domain.
• Presence of industry awards in the public domain (e.g. Global Sourcing Award, Top B2B Global Leaders, Best of the Global Outsourcing 100).
• Team size (bigger companies come first).
• Year of fundation (mature companies have more trust).
• Number of offices (more is better).
• Number of brand mentions over the web (only companies with 1,500+ mentions are listed).

What one gets easily and for free can be a real struggle for others — these are the thoughts every letter of the «Dobroshrift» [Kindness Font] evolves. It was developed for the World Cerebral Palsy Day with the participation of children with this diagnosis. So we decided to take part in this charity action and changed the website logo till the end of the day.

Microsoft researchers have developed an artificial intelligence (AI) system that has taught itself the intricacies of Mahjong and can now match the skills of some of the world’s top players.

The complex board game of chance, bluff, and strategy was invented in China thousands of years ago and remains a passionate pastime for millions of Asians today, with many dedicated competitors playing online.

Computers have learned to play Chess and another ancient Chinese game, Go, amid much fanfare in the past. But scientists at Microsoft Research (MSR) Asia see their achievement as far more than just a case of technology mastering yet another game.

The researchers – who named their system Super Phoenix, or Suphx for short – developed a series of AI algorithmic breakthroughs to navigate the uncertain nature of Mahjong. With more work, these could potentially be applied in real situations to solve problems thrown up by unknown factors and random events.

Celestia is a three-dimensional space simulator. Simulation of the space allows exploring our universe in three dimensions. Celestia is available on Windows, Linux and macOS. The project is very small and PVS-Studio detected few defects in it. Despite this fact, we'd like to pay attention to it, as it's a popular educational project and it will be rather useful to somehow improve it. By the way, this program is used in popular films, series and programs for showing space. This fact, in turns, raises requirements to the code quality.

We are excited to announce updates to Model Builder and improvements in ML.NET. You can learn more in the «What’s new in ML.NET?.» session at .NET Conf.

ML.NET is an open-source and cross-platform machine learning framework (Windows, Linux, macOS) for .NET developers.

ML.NET offers Model Builder (a simple UI tool) and CLI to make it super easy to build custom ML Models using AutoML.

Using ML.NET, developers can leverage their existing tools and skillsets to develop and infuse custom AI into their applications by creating custom machine learning models for common scenarios like Sentiment Analysis, Recommendation, Image Classification and more!..

This is an official tutorial published earlier on Ontology Medium blog
Excited to publish it for Habr readers. Feel free to ask any related questions and suggest a better format for tutorial materials

Foreword

In this article, we will begin to introduce the smart contract API of Ontology. The Ontology’s smart contract API is divided into 7 modules:

• Part 1: Blockchain & Block API
• Part 2: Storage API
• Part 3: Runtime API
• Part 4: Native API
• Part 5: Upgrade API
• Part 6: Execution Engine API
• Part 7: Static & Dynamic Call API

In this article, we will introduce the Blockchain & Block API, which is the most basic part of the Ontology smart contract system. The Blockchain API supports basic blockchain query operations, such as obtaining the current block height, whereas the Block API supports basic block query operations, such as querying the number of transactions for a given block.

Let’s get started!

First, create a new contract in SmartX and then follow the instructions below.

1. How to Use Blockchain API

References to smart contract functions are identical to Python’s references. Developers can introduce the appropriate functions as needed. For example, the following statement introduces GetHeight, the function to get the current block height, and GetHeader, the function to get the block header.