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PARANOID ANDROID | Mithun Mohandas | Managing Editor
Functional paranoia
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got my new Android phone was to delete every single unwanted package before I even logged in with my ID. Does the phone have a custom service to login? Yes, but I’ll pass. It’s also why I have a VPN activated at all times and have IP drop tables configured in my home routers. If there’s a possibility for me to control my data, I will have a crack at it. I never use the fingerprint scanner and the same goes for the face unlock feature. The good old pattern lock works best even now. The list goes on and on. So you might wonder, why am I bothered with getting an Android phone to begin with? Doesn’t that make me sort of a hypocrite? To be honest, I prefer the term ‘functional paranoid.’ Yes, I do take extraordinary precautions with things that would be considered non-issues by the vast majority but I don’t shy away from giving in if the pros outweigh the cons. For example, I have no qualms with having my GPS on all the time. This way, the security app installed on my phone can keep records of wherever my phone is at all times. Nor do I have any issues with using Google or Facebook to log into services. Why? Because I have *cough* alternate accounts that were made for that very purpose. So it doesn’t bother me much when every other week we see a massive password dump of yet another online service appear on blackhat forums. Yeah, they most certainly have the account ID and password of my alt accounts but should my main account ever be compromised, a host of fallback accounts are ready to take their place. Think of it as a digital bug out bag. For the average guy, this is paranoia, for me, it’s just the rational thing to do in this day and age.
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IT’S ALWAYS A GOOD FEELING when you get more than what you’ve paid for. The gradual rise in oxytocin levels as you get a little something extra in your hands is a familiar sensation. Say you’re at your local grocery store, and the grocer throws in an extra sachet of pickles, or when your sabjiwala remembers that you always ask for an extra bunch of curry leaves and hands you some without asking. With technology, we get to experience this happiness when incremental software patches resolve longstanding issues or when they introduce new features altogether. For example, Xiaomi just announced that they’ll be pushing Widevine Level 1 DRM certification to the Poco F1 with the next OS update, thereby enabling HotStar and Amazon Prime Video to stream in Full HD as opposed to the 720p resolution that users get with Widevine L2. These little surprises help build the brand image and strengthen the consumers’ faith in the brand as one that cares about consumer satisfaction. You know where this is going, don’t you? Once in a blue moon, things don’t exactly work out in the same manner. Ask Google since they recently found out the hard way. Folks who’d bought the Nest home security system were surprised to know that an upcoming software update would add a new feature to their Nest devices – Google Assistant. Normally, you’d be happy to know that a voice assistant is being retroactively introduced, after all, it’s the rage right now. Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant are currently engaged in an arms race to get as many devices as possible to integrate voice assistants. Alas, Nest consumers were enraged with the upcoming feature introduction. Why? Because, nobody told Nest owners that their devices had a microphone inbuilt. It was never mentioned in any of the advertisements or marketing material. In fact, even the data sheet (which nobody usually looks at) had no mention of the same. It’s as if Google went skeet shooting with people’s trust – trust being the skeets that rise high in the sky before being shot to smithereens with a 12-gauge shotgun! I’ll admit, even I was surprised by the whole incident. I don’t own any of these smart devices. Not that I’m not excited about the prospect of what they’re capable of doing, but I prefer to be in control of my privacy, as much as I possibly can. That’s why the first thing I did when I
“Yes, I do take extraordinary precautions with things that would be considered nonissues by the vast majority but I don’t shy away from giving in if the pros outweigh the cons.”
Let me know your thoughts on this column at: @mithun_mohandas | mithun@digit.in www.digit.in | March 2019 | Digit | 1
THE RSS FEED | Robert Sovereign-Smith | Executive Editor
That Holo feeling…
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everything else tech, and now rule our lives. TVs were made for groups of people, and were a family affair. PCs started off as learning and entertainment tools, which then evolved into laptops – even more “personal computers” than desktop PCs! And finally, tablets and mobiles overtook laptops, because they were even more portable and personal than 13-inch to 17-inch laptop screens. Augmented reality is poised to rule the roost, but it still has a long, long way to go. Even the Hololens 2 is miles away from a consumer product that can replace our phones. Don’t be fooled by the demos, AR devices are nowhere close to ready. In fact, the videos that are shown off to the public are nowhere close to the real experience. For example, most people think that what we see in videos of the Hololens 2 is actually what the wearer is seeing. It’s not. The wearer essentially sees a box, in which holograms are created by the software. Get too close to the object being displayed, and it will get cut off at the edges the exact same way it would if you were shooting a video of it and got too close. That said, there is no other interface that is poised to replace physical screens, so my hopes are pinned on AR. It took Microsoft 4 years to go from a 34-degree field of view (fov) in the original Hololens, to now a 52-degree diagonal fov. Of course, they had to work on a million other things as well, such as making sure it was lighter and more balanced, and eye tracked better, and other stuff, but it is a big deal to improve fov dramatically. For comparison, consider that we humans have about 210-degree horizontal fov and 150-degree vertical fov. That should give you an indicator of how far the tech still has to go. It will get there though because holographs are even more private than smartphones, and once the tech matures, it will give us far better visual quality and experience than a silly phone. Most importantly, it will encourage us to look up, to pay attention to the world, and to notice reality more. Of course, we will still be busy getting all our dopamine fixes, but at least we might start noticing one another again as well…
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I’M NOT TOO MUCH OF A PHONE GUY. Don’t get me wrong, I love having a current generation flagship phone, but they don’t excite me as much as they used to. I’ve just ordered an S10+ that should arrive in a week, and I’m pretty sure that when I open the box I won’t be one-tenth as excited as I was when I bought the (then spanking new) Sony Ericsson K750i – wading through the infamous Mumbai floods of 2005 for 10 hours bricked my old phone. Like most of the others in Team Digit, I too am far more excited by CES, and SpaceX and ISRO launches than I am with Mobile World Congress, or pretty much anything to do with phones. This is why, although MWC 2019 was overflowing with crazy cameras and bendable or foldable phones, it was Microsoft’s Hololens 2 that was the highlight for me. Not that I think it’s an awesome product, because it’s essentially useless to me the way it is right now, but I think it’s a step in the right direction. And the direction is what this column is about. Touch interfaces are very natural, and easy for pretty much anyone to master, and it’s why toddlers love their iPads (if they have them), and take to the devices like ducks to water. Being old enough to have owned devices that used everything from joysticks and trackballs to navigate through menus on mobile devices, I can tell you with certainty that the touch interface was most certainly a huge improvement. But now it’s time for a change. The idea of touching something to activate, or move it, or using pinch to zoom in and out, etc., is not the real problem at all, to be honest, but it’s the hardware interface (the screen) that needs to go. Why? Because it’s turned us into screen zombies. And also, it’s very limiting in terms of what can be done. It’s why curving the edge of a screen to not make the edges look so sharp feels like a significant leap forward. It’s still essentially a rectangle, but manufacturers are at least trying to hide that fact from you... For decades now, all we’ve essentially done is make our TVs smaller and smaller, and given them more and more power and versatility to be able to show us a lot of different stuff. We went from scheduled programming of TV shows to PCs and laptops that gave you the internet and gaming, and then to phones, which made it all super portable and a lot more private. And yes, that privacy is the real reason phones overtook
2 | Digit | March 2019 | www.digit.in
“The idea of touching something to activate, or move it, or using pinch to zoom in and out, etc., is not the real problem at all, to be honest, but it’s the hardware interface (the screen) that needs to go.”
Liked or hated this column? Let me know at: editor@digit.in | facebook.com/raaabo | @raaabo
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contents
COVER STORY PAGE 46 -56
Ultimate Android
Bored of the mundane life of using your Android phone just the way it arrived? Join us and ascend to a different level to take advantage of Android’s potential. TECH - PAGE 14-45
MARCH 2019
26| Optimise your social media feed
Declutter from the overwhelming number of posts on your timelines and feeds.
28 | Top 3 Recommended Buys
VOLUME 19 ISSUE 03
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From the top action cameras to mid-tower cabinets, here’s the best your money can buy right now.
15 | Tech watch
Developments in security, mobile phones and mobile apps that you need to keep a watch on.
16 | Snap happy
Smartphone camera software are improving photo quality and enabling new capabilities.
20 | Agent001
Should you buy regular thermal pastes or go for those exotic material ones? Agent001 answers it all.
24 | Startup corner: Fitness
Startups are trying to increase India’s health quotient.
29 | Config
Everything you’ll ever need to build your own PC. Whatever your budget.
30 | Teardown: Apple Mac Mini 2018 Upgradeable and easy to repair
32 | Reviews
We’ve reviewed latest graphics cards, gaming headsets, smartphones, laptops and more!
41 | Take my money
A console building kit, a miniature version of Sophia robot and a camera that follows you are the best you can crowdfund this month.
42 | Devworx: RapidMiner A handy guide to RapidMiner
AND MORE 4 | Digit | March 2019 | www.digit.in
CULTURE - PAGE 57-65
ALT - PAGE 82-94
ON THE DVD An exploration of how common technologies depicted in science fiction are closing in on becoming reality.
63 | Rantz
Foldable phones are stupid and manufacturers need new ideas soon.
The participatory nature of fandoms has led to different kinds of activities emerging within these communities.
90 | Infoporn
A timeline of the last ten years of some of the top apps in the smartphone stores.
92 | Backtalk
TECH Deepin Linux Deepin is a Debianbased distribution (it used to be Ubuntu-based until version 15 released in late 2015) that aims to provide an elegant, userfriendly and reliable operating system.
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64 | 1000 words
88 | Geek-key
These are the most useless things that we’ve sent to space.
AND MORE
Our interactions with the big wigs of the industry, this time with Oracle, Route Mobile and Seagate.
AND MORE
SKOAR! - PAGE 95-111
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SCIENCE - PAGE 66-81
68 | Cutting through the fog
98 | Reevu: Resident Evil 2
72 | The Square Kilometer Array (SKA)
102 | Reevu: Crackdown 3
Research from MIT could give autonomous vehicles better vision in fog and dust.
A radio telescope being built to understand the origin and evolution of the universe.
78 | Predicting your health
Was the remake able to build over the original classic and do justice to it?
After almost half a decade, the environment destruction simulator is finally out.
104 | It’s a gamble
A patent application from Google hints at a future of predicting major health problems.
With loot boxes being rampantly used in several games, should India gear up to pass regulations to prevent gambling before it picks up?
80 | Origins of surgery
108 | Reevu: Apex Legends
From painful, barbaric practices, to the extreme precision of modern day, the evolution of surgery deserves attention.
AND MORE
Respawn Entertainment and EA Games’ take on a battle royale game.
AND MORE
SCI Pixar in a box Pixar in a Box is a behind-the-scenes look at how Pixar artists do their jobs. You will be able to animate bouncing balls, build a swarm of robots, and make virtual fireworks explode. This is a collaboration between Pixar Animation Studios and Khan Academy.
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58 | From science fiction to science fact
Productivity tools Apache OpenOffice ArtRage ArsClip BleachBit Crypto Notepad CrystalDiskInfo CudaText Enable Viacam freac FreeMind GanttProject GnuCash Jarnal Lingoes MyDraw PhraseExpress Simplenote Tagstoo TidyTabs UCheck
CULT Pixel art indie games Black Box Gravity Ace Home Malone Iron Meat Lumiette Mindustry Soul Chomper Streets of Rogue Westwood Hills Hospital Zero Ranger
ALT Fleischer Studios Superman cartoons Fleischer Studios produced nine episodes of animated shorts of Superman in the 1940s, all of which are now in the public domain. The Mad Scientist T he Mechanical Monsters B illion Dollar Limited T he Arctic Giant T he Bulleteers T he Magnetic Telescope E lectric Earthquake V olcano Terror on the Midway Dystopian audiobooks A nthem The Iron Heel T he Sleeper Awakes
www.digit.in | March 2019 | Digit | 5
TO ADVERTISE MARCH 2019 • VOLUME 19 • ISSUE 03
ADVERTISING INDEX
EMAIL: sales@digit.in SALES DIRECTOR: Rashmi Mamgain Kumar Mobile: +91-9900567780
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NORTH: Mayank Sharma Mobile: +91-8800661912
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EDITORIAL Executive Editor Robert Sovereign-Smith Managing Editor Mithun Mohandas Features Editor Aditya Madanapalle Associate Editor Arnab Mukherjee Intern Nikhil Nagvekar
Brand.......................................... Page No.
WEST: Suvarna Shringarpure Mobile: +91-93249 28247
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TEST CENTRE Reviews Editor Swapnil Mathur Reviewers Abhijit Dey, Subhrojit Mallick, Vignesh Giridharan
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Accenture.......................................................11 LIC..................................................................13 IOCL................................................................19
DIGIT.IN Editor Soham Raninga Managing Editor Adamya Sharma Assistant Editor Sameer Mitha Senior Sub-Editor Shrey Pacheco Writer Shubham Sharma
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FORM IV STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP AND OTHER PARTICULARS ABOUT THE PUBLICATION DIGIT AS PER RULE 8 1 Place of publication 9.9 Group Pvt Ltd, 121, Patparganj, Mayur Vihar Ph. I, Near Mandir Masjid, Delhi-110091. 2 Periodicity of its publication Monthly 3 Printer’s name Kanak Ghosh Nationality Indian (a) Whether citizen of India Yes (b) If a foreigner, the country of origin N/A Address BH-44, Sector-II, Salt Lake, Kolkata-700091 4 Publisher’s name Kanak Ghosh Nationality Indian (a) Whether citizen of India Yes (b) If a foreigner, the country of origin N/A Address BH-44, Sector-II, Salt Lake, Kolkata-700091 5 Editor’s name Kanak Ghosh Nationality Indian (a) Whether citizen of India Yes (b) If a foreigner, the country of origin N/A Address BH-44, Sector-II, Salt Lake, Kolkata-700091 6 Name & Addresses of individuals who 1) Dr. Pramath Raj Sinha own the news paper and partners or shareholders 2) Mr. Asheesh Kumar Gupta holding more than one percent of the total capital 3) Mr. Vikas Gupta 4) Mr. Kanak Ranjan Ghosh 5) Ms. Anuradha Das Mathur & Others
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DESIGN Sr. Art Director Anil VK Art Director Shokeen Saifi Visualiser Baiju NV Lead UI/UX Designer Shri Hari Tiwari
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CIRCULATION SALES Head - Circulation Samir Mehta Regional Managers Jayanta Bhattacharyya, Norbert Joseph
READER SERVICES Team Leader Sudhir Patel +91-22-67899678 / help@digit.in 6 | Digit | March 2019 | www.digit.in
Share Holder More than 1% I, Kanak Ghosh, hereby declare that the particulars given above are true to best of my knowledge. Dated: March 1, 2019
Sd/(Signature of publisher)
CONTACT US TELL US WHAT YOU FEEL ABOUT DIGIT If you have an opinion about anything published in Digit, or about technology in general, write to editor@digit.in or call at +91-22-678 99 700. To interact with the authors of specific articles, please write to the email address specified under the author’s name HELP! For copy-related issues, delivery status or any other complaints regarding our service, write to help@digit.in or call +91-22-678 99 678
BAZAAR Samsung 970 EVO Plus 250 GB AMD Radeon VII Zebronics Max Pro Thermaltake X1 RGB Honor View 20 MSI GE75 Raider Samsung Galaxy M20 HP Notebook 15 Beyerdynamic Amiron Wireless
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SOFTWARE ON THE DVDs To submit and suggest software or any other type of content, to be included in the Digit DVDs, write to dvd@digit.in or call +91-22-678 99 707
PRODUCTS REVIEWED THIS MONTH
Q&A If you’re having trouble with your PC or a gadget, our experts can help solve your problems. Just write in to sos@digit.in. Remember to include full system configurations in your email.
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AGENT001 Confused about what product to buy? You can get technology buying advice from our team (and maybe even directly from our very own secret agent... if you’re lucky), by addressing your query to: agent001@digit.in SUBSCRIBE Want to get an edge over everyone else at school, college, or even work? Subscribe to India’s #1 Technology Magazine, and you will find our secret sauce is the best! Plus you will save money. Visit www.digit.in/subscribe or email us at help@digit.in PRODUCT TESTING Want your product reviewed by Digit? Contact our Test Center at testcenter@digit.in or call +91-22-678 99 708 NEWS & NEW PRODUCT LAUNCHES To announce new product launches and press releases, email us at pressrelease@digit.in
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GAMES REVIEWED THIS MONTH Apex Legends Crackdown 3 Resident Evil 2
MOBILE MONTHLY Garfield Rush | Blackmoor 2 | Lemmings Heroes of Flatlandia | OutRush | Dragons: Titan Uprising | Angry Birds Dream Blast
Published and printed by Kanak Ghosh for and on behalf of the owners, 9.9 Group Pvt. Ltd. (Formerly known as Nine Dot Nine Mediaworx Private Limited) 121, Patparganj, Mayur Vihar Phase-1, Near Mandir Masjid, Delhi - 110091 and printed at International Print-O-Pac Limited, C/4-11, Hosiery Complex, Phase II Extension, Noida-201306 (U.P.) INDIA. Editor: Kanak Ghosh.
“We do not endorse or recommend any product or service advertised in the magazine. The advertisement’s in this magazine are for information purposes only. We do not, expressly or impliedly, warrant or assume any liability or responsibility for the quality, accuracy, completeness, legality, reliability, usefulness or claims of any product or service advertised in the magazine. Our readers are strongly advised to carry out their own independent assessment of the product or services advertised in the magazine.”
DISCLAIMER For every Digit contest, there will be only one winner, unless specified otherwise. In the event of a dispute, the Editor’s decision shall be final.
WHAT’S NEW
Microsoft unveils HoloLens 2 Mixed Reality HMD
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are two cameras on the nose bridge focused on each pupil to measure the inter-pupillary distance. So, the images cast on the displays can be adjusted accordingly. The Hololens 2 is much more power efficient than the previous Cherry Trail-based Hololens 1, thus, giving it a much longer battery life. https://dgit.in/MSHolo2
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DOES THIS SECTION EVEN NEED AN INTRODUCTION? FROM COMPUTERS TO MOBILES, AND HEADPHONES TO GPUs, IT’S ALL HERE...
t MWC 2019, Microsoft unveiled the Hololens 2, and it went up for pre-order on Feb 24 for $3,500. It features improved build and comfort. It has new components such as the Azure Kinect sensor, eye-tracking sensors and is powered by an ARM processor. The HMD even has an 8-megapixel camera facing the front and uses USB Type-C for I/O. As expected, it has 6DOF and features an entirely reworked display. The field of view is now twice as wide as the previous device. Each eye has a dedicated display in front of it featuring a holographic density of 47 pixels per degree. There
MWC is flooded with foldable smartphones
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his MWC will be remembered for are all the foldable phones that were launched or announced. While the Royale Flexpai was the first to be unveiled at CES 2019, the mainstream manufacturers followed suit at MWC. Samsung led the charge with their new Samsung Fold followed by Huawei’s Mate X. The Samsung Fold had a $1,980 price tag and the Mate X took a step further to $2,600. Aside from these two,
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THIS MONTH IN TECH: Learn about all the advancements in camera software that are enabling magnificent photos these days. Take out time to declutter your social media feed from unnecessary information. There’s also a simple guide to help you choose the best thermal paste for your PC and more.
Apple SDK to allow porting iOS apps to Mac
Code named Marzipan, Apple is working on a brand new SDK that will allow developers to code apps that can be built for iPhone, iPad and Mac without additional effort. This would be similar to what Microsoft has been doing with the Universal Windows Platform. https://dgit.in/AppleUP
DJI announces new 3D geofencing system In light of the recent disruption at the Gatwick airport because a drone that flew too close, DJI has unveiled a new 3D “bowtie” geofencing system that’ll actively prevent DJI drones from getting anywhere close to airports. https://dgit.in/DJIFenced
14 | Digit | March 2019 | www.digit.in
Xiaomi is reportedly working on a foldable phone concept but we didn’t see that in action at MWC. TCL (OEM for Alcatel and BlackBerry) showcased hinge technologies that could
NVIDIA launches GTX 1660 Ti, a non-RTX turing
In light of the overpriced RTX launch and dropping stock prices, NVIDIA launched the GTX 1660 Ti, a graphics card without ray-tracing or DLSS. It offers about a 36% improvement in performance over the GTX 1060. https://dgit.in/GTX1660Ti
fold into different form facts. They had one that mimicked the Razer style of flipping and another that mimicked the Samsung Fold style. LG was the third company to have a foldable phone in the form of the LG V50 ThinQ. While the other two phones had bendable displays, the LG V50 uses a case that allows you to attach an additional display which folds over the existing display. https://dgit.in/MWCFold
Facebook may remove anti-vaccine recommendations
Facing the ire of lawmakers over the presence of harmful and misleading content on the platform, Facebook said that it is exploring removing anti-vaccine information from recommendations and other points of discovery. https://dgit.in/FBVacYes
reviews
For better understanding of our ratings, here’s a quick guide to our overall score 10 to 30 to 50 to
51
to 70 to
71
to 90 to
Keep away!
Strictly OK.
Not recommended
Decent product.
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31
Extremely poor product.
to 100 91 to
Go for it, but there may be better products out there.
Very good product. Highly recommended.
Ground-breaking product.
We’ve never seen anything like it before. A definite must buy!
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The Digit Test Centre receives hundreds of products every month. Each of these products is put through a series of tests and is finally given a score. The final score is arrived at after considering a number of factors and evaluating them in terms of features, performance, value for money, build quality, and, in the case of software, ease of use.
THE LATEST PRODUCTS REVIEWED FOR YOU
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INSIDE
MSI GE75 Raider 8SG
38
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Samsung 970 EVO Plus
34
Thermaltake X1 RGB
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35
Honor View 20
39
beyerdynamic Amiron Wireless PLUS
33 AMD Radeon VII 35 Plantronics BackBeat FIT 305 36 Zebronics MAX Pro 36 Samsung Galaxy M20 37 HP Notebook 15 39 Bose Soundbar 700 40 LG V40 ThinQ & MORE...
OnionShare 2 released
New TOR powered file sharing introduces features like public mode, anonymous Dropbox support and more. https://dgit.in/mar19-77
Finally you get to remap Bixby button Samsung addressed the biggest complaint about Bixby button by allowing S10 users to choose what the button does. https://dgit.in/mar19-78
tech REVIEWS
AMD Radeon VII Shooting for the stars
And in Time Spy we managed to surprise announcement get 9503 whereas at CES 2019, AMD the RTX 2080 unveiled to the world a Price 0 9 scored 10788. flagship GPU in the form of the 54,9 In video Radeon VII. Based on the Vega games, the 20 GPU, the Radeon VII stood out Radeon VII was because of the process shrink as well scoring the same as the competitive pricing. Using as the RTX 2080 in Shadow of TSMC’s 7nm process, this is the the Tomb Raider but in Deus Ex world’s first gaming graphics card on manufacturing costs would be Mankind Divided, the difthis process node and with that comes much lower than that but it ference was about 9-12 FPS an improvement in performance that, begs the question as to how with the RTX 2080 in the AMD says, puts it right up in league of AMD managed to take a FEATURES.....................79 lead. In Strange Brigade, the RTX 2080. Priced at $699 or ridiculously expensive PERFORMANCE...........84 the Radeon VII took the `54,990, the Radeon VII supersedes GPU and repackaged it for VALUE............................75 lead by about 6-8 FPS. the Vega64, but by exactly how much? sale at a much lower price DESIGN..........................82 Overall, the Radeon VII is That stands to be seen. point. Multiple articles evenly matched with the had been written around NVIDIA RTX 2080. the launch time citing that the Bill of Specifications Materials (BOM) for the Radeon VII Usually, when we have a new GPU was too high for AMD to make any within the same architecture (both Verdict profit off of it. That’s something we’ll are GCN5), the core count goes up and Gaming benchmarks aside, AMD is never know. the clock speed scales to achieve the marketing the massive HBM2 VRAM maximum possible value while not that the Radeon VII has. It obviexceeding the thermal envelope. In the ously makes the Radeon more of a Build case of the Radeon VII, the core count multi-purpose card making it good for The front and back plates are maactually went down. The Radeon VII content creation applications as well chined out of an aluminium alloy and has 60 Compute Units (CUs) whereas as gaming given how competitive it is most importantly, the sides are open. the Vega 64 has 64 CUs as the name with the NVIDIA RTX 2080. Though Older samples would have a single suggests. However, AMD compensated the card seems like a really good buy, blower design so the Radeon VII has a for this by ramping up the base clock you’ll be hard pressed to find one in marked difference. There’s a massive speed to 1400 MHz which is 153 MHz the market. In about a week since the copper vapour chamber connected higher than the Vega 64. However, the February 7 launch, we’ve seen all the to five heatpipes running along the TDP only went up to 300W which is online listings from the card go out of length of the card. On top of this lies a meagre 5W greater than the Vega64. stock. It’s a pity because not only is the the heatsink assembly and the fans are Ideally, you’d see a much larger bump Radeon VII priced a lot lower than the seated in cutouts. The sheer size of the but we’d assume that the process RTX 2080 but with the video game copper vapour chamber is jaw-dropshrink has helped with power savings bundle they’ve included, you’re practiping. For the I/O, we see 3x DPI and 1x which allowed for the overall improvecally getting three AAA titles as well. HDMI ports. ment in performance. Since you can't get your hands on one What few people realised is that the any time soon, all you can do now is Performance core configuration seems exactly like wait for Navi cards due later this year. In all our synthetic benchmarks, the that of the Radeon Instinct MI50, a AI/ Radeon VII inches past the RTX 2080 –Mithun Mohandas ML accelerator by AMD which was in Fire Strike Ultra but in Unigine we unveiled a few months prior. The price see the opposite. Then again, in our SPECIFICATIONS STREAM PROCESSORS: 3840 | CU: 64 | BOOST CLOCK: 1750 MHz difference is shocking though. We’ve OpenCL benchmarks the Radeon VII | VRAM: 16 GB HBM2 | BUS-WIDTH: 4096-bit | CONNECTORS: spotted the Radeon Instinct MI25 sellmaintains a good lead as Radeon cards 21x8PIN | TBP: <300W ing for $4,900 online. The MI50 has have done for many generations in the CONTACT much better specs and would have repast. In Fire Strike Ultra we managed AMD (ADVANCED MICRO DEVICES) | PHONE: Web form | EMAIL: tailed for a lot more money. Obviously, to hit 6703 without any overclock. Web form | WEBSITE: www.amd.com
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> code / creativity / community >
FOR THOSE GEEKS WHO LIKE TO GET THEIR HANDS DIRTY IN CODE
Let’s Mine! Xavier Das | feedback@digit.in
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f you feel that data science or machine learning is your cup of tea, chances are you might have heard about RapidMiner. Quoted right from its official site, it is a “visual workflow designer that brings data and machine learning to the entire analytics team, from analysts to experts”
Marketplace. When it comes to databases, RapidMiner supports MySQL, PostgreSQL and Google BigQuery and the amazing part is that data can be queried and retrieved without you needing to write SQL (unless absolutely necessary)! Let’s now see what the RapidMiner studio has in store for us. A quick walkthrough the UI would help us.
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A guide to RapidMiner
looping, executing SQL and R, creating directories, deleting files and what not. In essence, whatever modification you are doing on your data set, manually using an operator or via TurboPrep, in the back-end, it’s always a process executing with operators chalked out in the exact sequence of your work. The top right hand corner features the parameters view which comes in handy when you have dragged any operator from the operator view into the process view. For instance, if we drag a retrieve operator, which essentially retrieves data from the local storage, we need to mention the path from where it does. The path here is a parameter named as 'repository entry'. An interesting thing to note is that if you do know the name of the operator, you can just look it up using the search instead of travelling though the file structure to find it. In this case, we looked up retrieve. The right bottom pane holds the 'Help' view where contextual information is provided regarding the operator which you have selected. It is a quick help and definitely not very descriptive. There are links to tutorials present in this view which can be clicked upon to get further elaboration. Let’s understand a bit on how rapid miner operates loading and saving of files. Let us first create a repository called 'My First Activity' and in it, create two folders called ‘Data’ and ‘Processes’, where the Data folder shall hold our datasets and the Processes folder shall hold our processes. RapidMiner processes have an extension of .rmp. Data in Rapid Miner are mostly Excel spreadsheets. Every row is called an example and every column, an attribute.
THE WORKSPACE
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The centre frame holds the 'Process' view where the actual work is being done like dragging in operators, connecting the ports, the results, etc.
This is what you're welcomed with when you open RapidMiner studio.
It boasts of over 1500 and more machine learning algorithms and functions that can be operated on data sets as per requirements. It supports drag and drop functionality like any other modern tool. It offers varieties of templates to suit use-cases which include customer defection, fraud detection, predictive analysis, so on and so forth. Databases, data-warehouses, cloud sources, social networks or simply data from local storage, RapidMiner can integrate with all of the above to retrieve data by means of extensions available at the RapidMiner
42 | Digit | March 2019 | www.digit.in
On the top left hand corner is the Repository view from which you get the data to work with. Rapid Miner provides us with a set of sample data. Database connections, data from cloud and even from local storage can be imported through this view. The bottom left hand corner has the operators view which has myriad operators to support operations we might want on our data. We have operations like retrieving, storing, performance classification, clustering, normalizing, detecting outliers, removing duplicate, predictive analysis, generating macros,
LOADING AND SAVING DATA To keep things simpler, we are going to load the data from our local storage. • Without using a process – This is simpler and can be thought of as a manual activity as opposed to using a process for the same. We click on import data in the repository view and load the file. In this case I have used
Imaging: Anil VK
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cover story
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Are you still using your Android phone as it arrived in the box? Chances are, even if you splurged on a flagship device about a year ago, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re feeling the effects of the natural slowdown that plagues all mobiles. Get more out of your Android smartphone, not just in terms of performance, but in terms of functionality with the tips and tricks we are offering up here. If you have any secrets of your own that you use, write in and weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll feature the best ones in upcoming issues... Team Digit | feedback@digit.in
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Maintain connectivity
With these two options toggled on, whenever the network quality deteriorates, the device will switch to a mobile connection. By keeping the connection active even when there is a WiFi signal, the device can fall back more quickly to the mobile network. With this, you can enjoy uninterrupted gaming sessions on PUBG, Asphalt or Star Legends.
ing a YouTube video while chatting with friends, or monitoring your social network feeds while browsing the net at the same time. Even if the developer did not support the split screen mode natively for the app, this process forces all apps to run in the split screen mode. Note that some applications, particularly games, may be buggy in this mode. You can adjust the slider to decide how much screen real estate each application occupies. To get rid of the split screen, simply drag the slider all the way to the bottom, or all the way to the top.
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For certain critical applications such as mobile gaming, it is necessary to be connected to the internet all the time. While it might not
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Force Split Screen for all apps
To force all apps to run in split screen mode, you will have to first enable developer options, then go to Settings > System > Developer Options
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and turn on the Force activities to be resizable option. Now you can select any one app by long pressing it, and drag it to the top of the screen to use the split screen mode. You can use this feature in a number of ways, for example watch-
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Monitor your network traffic usage
Your phone probably has a live network indicator that gives you information on your upload and download speeds. By default, your phone also monitors how much data was
be economically feasible to use mobile data all the time, you can have it as a backup option if you have a spotty WiFi connection, or prevent dropping out of a game in case there is a disruption in the line. To be able to do this, first you have to enable developer mode in your device. This can be done by going to Settings > System> About phone and tapping on the Build number 7 times. From the 3rd tap, a countdown starts appearing, notifying how many taps you are away from unlocking the developer mode. Once developer mode is unlocked, go to System > Developer Options and toggle Agressive Wi-Fi to mobile handover, as well as Mobile data to always active.
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WHAT’S NEW
Gotham’s departure from canon
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All Netflix Marvel shows are now cancelled
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INSIDE
become Batman when he’s an adult and everything follows after that. Another case would be the killer of his parents is Matches Malone, but it was Joe Chill in the comics. One more departure is Penguin’s evil but sympathetic character. He’s only cold and cruel in the comics, but in Gotham his character has been given more layers to create a love/hate relationship with the viewers. https://dgit.in/GthmCanon
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GEEK CULTURE IS OUR WAY OF LIFE, AND ENCOMPASSES MOVIES, GAMES, COMICS, AND TRENDS FROM ACROSS THE GLOBE
otham has successfully introduced numerous iconic characters and villains from the Batman comics, without having Batman in it, yet. There have been several times when Gotham didn’t stick to the original source material for several of its characters. The biggest departure would be how Bruce Wayne transitions into becoming the masked vigilante. In the show, he’s seen to be investigating the death of his parents right after it happened. He also starts training and as the season ends, we are going to see him transform into the Dark Knight. In the comics, he trains to
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ack when the MCU was already booming with multi-billion-dollar movies, Netflix set out to create a universe in TV shows. Although they weren’t directly connected to the MCU, they would make call outs and acknowledge its existence. Shows such as Luke Cage, Iron Fist and Daredevil had been cancelled long back. Recently, Jessica Jones and Punisher got cancelled as well, marking the end of all the Marvel TV shows made by Netflix. As for The Defenders,
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THIS MONTH IN CULT: No one at Digit is hyped about foldable phones, the tech from SciFi that is making its way to meatspace and all the strange things that humans have sent up into space.
X-men’s Guinness recognition
Hugh Jackman and Sir Patrik Stewart made it to the Guinness Book of World Records for the “longest career as a live-action Marvel superhero” recently. Both started off in their respective roles in the X-men movies back in 2000. https://dgit.in/HJSPSGui
Space Jam 2 release date
Warner Bros has finally announced the release date of Space Jam 2, starring LeBron James. The date, on July 16, 2021 is between the releases of Indiana Jones 5 on July 9 and Mission Impossible 7 on July 23. https://dgit.in/SpcJm2
it was a mini-series and there hasn’t been an official cancellation but that begs the question of whether more episodes were planned at all. It isn’t clear why some of the good ones were cancelled. Disney is launching their own
13-year old Manga creator
Artist Nana Hoshiki’s debut manga creation Tidings of Snow (or Inshin no Yuki), is gaining a lot of praise in the manga scene, which is commendable considering the fact that she’s only 13. https://dgit. in/13NanaManga
streaming platform called Disney+ this year. They have plans for several original contents including popular characters from the MCU. The characters from the TV show universe might find a place in the new service. Netflix also has been creating a lot of original content and moving away from Marvel properties could be a sign of them saying that they don’t need licensed characters or stories. The streaming war is getting aggressive. https://dgit.in/NtflxFrbs
Stallone’s superhero movie
Samaratin is Sylvester Stallone’s fresh and dark take on a superhero movie that he will be producing and starring in. No other details are out yet. Stallone plays Starhawk in the MCU. https://dgit.in/ SamaratinSS
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culture
Captain Marvel Post Credits
Marvel Studios held a press screening for Captain Marvel where they revealed the movie will have two post credit scenes. https://dgit.in/mar19-58
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staple. The ray guns in Star Trek and the blasters in Star Wars are examples of energy weapons in fiction. Many countries around the world are developing direct energy weapons, which use lasers, microwaves or accelerated particles. Dynetics and Lockheed Martin are developing the High Energy Laser Tactical Vehicle Demonstrator (HEL TVD), a 100 kW laser weapon mounted on a truck. The HEL TVD is meant to fire at incoming missiles, mortar rounds, artillery shells and hostile drones. The primary advantage of the laser weapon is the low cost of firing every round. In 1984, Russia developed what is known as the Soviet laser pistol, which was a hand held direct energy weapon for use in space by cosmonauts. The pistol was
designed to disrupt the optical instruments of enemy spacecraft. In India, the Defence Research Development Organization has collaborated with Bhabha Atomic Research Centre to develop an energy weapon known as Kilo Ampere Linear Injector (KALI). KALI is a cannon that fires pulses of accelerated electrons, and is designed to pulverise UAVs, satellites and any missiles that enter Indian airspace. Energy weapons are all still in the experimental stage, and at best are meant to complement existing kinetic weapon systems.
SPACE ELEVATOR
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he technological progress that humans have seen over the past two decades have turned a number of science fiction concepts into reality. These technologies include armoured and powered exoskeletons, self driving cars, watches with communication capabilities and AI assistants. All of us truly live in magical times. In this article, we have a look at some of the most common technologies in science fiction stories, and find out how close scientists are to actually realising them, and if there are any real scientific breakthroughs on the horizon.
The Pokemon Go update allows players to take photos of their Pokemon in the real world. https://dgit.in/mar19-59
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FEATURE
AR mode on ‘Pokemon Go’
ENERGY WEAPONS
Energy weapons are science fiction
SCIENCE FICTION TO
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SCIENCE FACT The miracles of modern science
Aditya Madanapalle | aditya@digit.in
The HEL-TVD concept by Lockheed and Dynetics 58 | Digit | March 2019 | www.digit.in
In 1895, a Russian scientist by the name of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky visited Paris, and was impressed by the Eiffel Tower. He imagined such a tower continuing all the way into space. In his mind’s eye, he envisioned that at the end of the spire, there could be a celestial castle in space. Arthur C Clarke explored the idea in detail in his 1978 book, The Fountains of Paradise. In a fictional kingdom set in the Indian Subcontinent, a space elevator or orbital tower is constructed. Such a structure would provide cheap and easy access to space. The height of the space elevator would extend beyond geosynchronous orbit, and have a counterweight which would be constantly pushed away from the Earth because of centrifugal force. A cable tether-
WHAT’S NEW
Ancient dino cousin shows diversification in post extinction Antarctica
Neptune’s newest moon may be a piece of another moon
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THIS MONTH IN SCIENCE:
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fossils found in Africa. The two continents were joined during the time period, in a supercontinent called Pangea. The discovery also points to the recovery of life after the Permian-Triassic extinction, where over 90 percent of the life on Earth was wiped out because of climate change caused by massive volcanic eruptions in the Siberian traps. https://dgit.in/arcking
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SCIENCE IS THE PATH TO KNOWLEDGE, AND FINDING OUT ABOUT HOW OUR UNIVERSE WORKS. YOU CAN’T BE A GEEK AND NOT KNOW YOUR SCIENCE!
n iguana-sized cousin of the dinosaurs and modern crocodilians has been discovered, in the Antarctanax genus, which means “Antartic King”. The creature has been named Antarctanax shackletoni, in honour of Ernest Shackleton, a polar explorer. About 250 million years ago, Antarctica was not a frozen desert, and had a vibrant ecosystem with forests and rivers. The creature was a carnivore that preyed on insects, amphibians and relatives of the early mammals. The discovery is the latest of many new life forms found in ancient Antartica, which are surprisingly very different from the
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n 2013, Hubble photographed a tiny moon of Neptune, which was given the name Hippocamp, after a creature from Greek mythology. The object puzzled astronomers as the moon simply should not have been there. It is only about 12,000 kilometers away from Proteus, another moon of Neptune. At such a distance, Proteus
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An aurora-like phenomenon called Steve, the origins of surgery, 2D materials and what they’re good for, the mysteries of alkaloids, very large telescopes, what big data does for health, and electric cars that see better...
should have absorbed the tiny moon, in a process by which large objects clear tinier objects in their orbital path.
Astronomers looking through old photos, captured by the Voyager 2 spacecraft in 1989, noticed a large crater on Proteus. The crater was evidence that a cometary impact could have chipped off Hippocamp from Proteus. This is the first time that there is evidence that a moon was formed after a cometary impact event. https://dgit.in/hpcmp
Bottlenecks in the brain
Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University have discovered that there are bottlenecks between portions of the brain, that regulate the information flow between the neurons these areas. These communication subspaces decide where some information, such as colour or motion, is routed to. The discovery could better help explain brain activity. https://dgit.in/nbtlnk
A pied piper for brain tumors
In a breakthrough for treating brain tumours, researchers have created a “Tumor Monorail” that makes the tumours migrate to the outer regions of the brain, where they can be removed easily. The prototype device mimics white matter within brains. https://dgit.in/ppbrain
66 | Digit | March 2019 | www.digit.in
Rocket launched from balloon
A startup by the name of Leo Aerospace has successfully launched a rocket into space, from a high altitude balloon. The approach could make space more accessible to private companies, and allow for the deployment of microsatellites at low costs. https://dgit.in/leospce
Vegetarian diet may control diabetes Studies show that those who have a vegetarian diet have healthier blood sugar levels, a lower body weight, and reduced dependence on medication. Even just reducing the amount of meat intake, can have beneficial effects. https://dgit.in/vegdb
sci
Bird poop and dust ruin Mars plans
Experimental battery on Moon
SpaceX plans to use a heat shield that will leak liquid through small pores which could easliy be clogged by dust. https://dgit.in/mar19-13
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southern hemisphere, till the SKA is realised. The MeerKAT array will be absorbed into the SKA, and become a part of it. MeerKAT is just one of the many telescopes around the world, that are being built just so that scientists can get the experience necessary to design and built the SKA. Around the world, are several officially designated SKA pathfinder telescopes, that are engaged in observational campaigns and science activities similar to what the SKA is being designed for. These telescopes provide the feedback necessary to the design teams. One of these telescopes, the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT), is located in India.
to work out the details of building the next generation radio telescope. Between 1997 and 2007, a number of international collaboration agreements were drawn up towards the effort. The effort is headed by the SKA organisation, a non-profit company based in the UK. The twelve participating countries which are a part of the SKA organisation are Australia, Canada, China, France, India, Italy, New Zealand, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Netherlands and United Kingdom. Academic institutions and government organisations from these countries are involved in the project. The National Centre for Radio Astrophysics is the participating institution from India. The antennas of the SKA will be physically located in Australia, Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa and Zambia. Apart from these, twenty other countries are participating in the technical aspects of the design and development of the telescope. These countries include Germany, Portugal and Japan. In all, representatives of an estimated 40 percent of the population of the world, is involved in some way or the other, towards the building of the SKA. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s one of the largest scientific endeavors ever undertaken.
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he square kilometer array (SKA) is a radio telescope being built for the purpose of understanding the origin and evolution of the universe. With an effective collecting area of one square kilometer, it is going to be the largest telescope ever built. The telescope is currently in the design phase, and the construction is expected to start in 2024. There are two phases of the construction, with the first phase designed for ten percent of the total capacity of the telescope. The costs of the second phase has not yet been worked out. The telescope is expected to start its observation runs in 2028. In South Africa, the MeerKAT telescope with 64 antennas is undergoing verification tests, and is expected to be the largest radio telescope in the
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SPACE AGE
Japanese startup plans to test solid-state battery on the Moonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s surface https://dgit.in/mar19-14
The building of the SKA is a global effort, that is already decades old. In 1993, the International Union of Radio Science (URSI) established the Large Telescope Working Group
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THE SQUARE KILOMETER ARRAY A continent sized radio telescope Aditya Madanapalle | aditya@digit.in
72 | Digit | March 2019 | www.digit.in
SKA LAYOUT The SKA telescopes will be arrayed in the form of a spiral galaxy, with individual astronomical instruments spread out across Africa and Australia. This arrangement of dishes will create a long baseline interferometer array, such as the The Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) in the US and the LOFAR telescope in Netherlands. The telescope will be made up of thousands of high frequency, mid frequency and low frequency dishes. Ideally, the best configuration for the telescope for obtaining the highest resolution imaging capability, was to randomly
Credit: SKA organisation
INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATION
WHAT’S NEW
AI finds emotions in buddhist statues
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ALT this month:
that humans should not judge the Buddhas, because of their religious significance, but it’s ok if an AI does it. The purpose of the project is to “provide people with a means for reaffirming the beauty of Buddhism.” https://dgit.in/aistat
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THIS IS TECHNOLOGY, CULTURE AND SCIENCE WITH A DIFFERENCE, AND THAT DIFFERENCE IS USUALLY ENOUGH TO MAKE MOST NORMAL PEOPLE GO “WTF?”
uddhist statues traditionally are not supposed to display any emotions, and not even genders. The sculptors were given explicit orders to make the statues as indifferent as possible as it was considered to be closer to perfection. However, humans are humans, and emotions are strong within us, and researchers are using AI to figure out which expression the sculptor intended to convey. There were some surprising results: for example, expressions of a single statue change from happy to sad based on what angle you look at it from. Some favoured angry expressions, while others leaned towards happy expressions. The researchers from Nara University believed
Global population may decline in the future
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ccording to the United Nations, the human population is on track to reach 11 billion by the end of the century. A journalist and a political scientist, who have published a book called “Empty Planet”, believe that the prediction of exponentially increasing population is fundamentally wrong. John Ibbitson and Darrell Bricker believe that in about three decades, the world will reach its peak human population. After
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Inside this crazy section this month we look at various ways in which fans celebrate their love of franchises, delve into the past decade of popular apps, get a regular dose of dgt, and round it all up with interviews with industry experts from Seagate, Oracle and Route Mobile...
Gene altered mosquitoes released
Researchers have released genetically engineered mosquitoes in a high security lab. These mosquitoes have been bred to spread infertility among wild mosquitoes, which is a population control measure. There are ethical questions of releasing such animals in the wild, as the consequences on the ecosystem are unknown. https://dgit.in/gamosq
Lizard breaks rule of biology
Animals that have evolved to give birth to live young, do not (usually) revert to laying eggs, a principle known as Dollo’s law. However, a species of lizard living in the Andes lays live young in extreme cold conditions, but lays eggs when it moved to colonise the surrounding lowlands. https://dgit.in/dololiz
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that, the population will start declining, and never stop. Just one factor – the spread of female education – is inversely tied to birth rates, and this is predicted to be enough to reduce the population in 2100 to between 8 and 9 billion. The models that the UN uses to forecast
Chinese tech Superstitions
Chinese technology companies are known to start businesses on lucky dates according to the Chinese zodiac, ask Buddhist monks to bless gaming servers, include auspicious numbers in URLs, construct offices base don Feng Shui, etc. https://dgit.in/chitek
population growth, does not take into account these factors, and is rather simplistically based on just birth, death and migration rates. In the focus group interviews conducted by the pair, people wanted to have fewer children, all around the world. https://dgit.in/popdecline
Striped body paint deters insects
The tribal population of Africa, Papua New Guinea and Australia have traditionally painted stripes on their faces and bodies. Research shows that such patterns on the skin deters insects such as horseflies, tse tse flies, and black flies. This is the reason why Zebras evolved stripes. https://dgit.in/flystripe
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Apple’s significant drop in innovation
Apple has fallen from 1st spot last year to a whopping 17th spot on Fast Company’s ‘most innovative companies’ list for 2019. https://dgit.in/mar19-26
FANDOMS AND FAN LABOUR The participatory nature of fandoms has led to different kinds of activities emerging within these communities.
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ASOIAF: METADISCUSSIONS
A Song of Ice and Fire is custom made for meta discussions, which can get pretty heated. At times, fans will even reach out to GRRM to get inputs on particular contentious topics – such as if lemon trees can grow in Braavos, and where Dany spent her childhood. These discussions involve critical reading, following up the arcs of individual characters, and forming theories. The discussions take place on the forums of westeros.org, as well as many subreddits. Fans maintain a healthy division between the narratives of ASOIAF and GoT, and discuss each differently. Most fans do not consume fan fiction because the author does not like it.
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ans engage with others in the community through various kinds of fan activities. This may involve dressing up as one of the characters (cosplay), writing stories set in the same universe (fan fiction), painting interpretations of characters (fan art), or discussing the stories in depth (metadiscussion). While there is significant overlap of these activities across all fandoms, particular activities have emerged around some franchises which are suitable for that kind of fan labour. While traditionally these activities could only be found on conventions, the advance of technologies has allowed for more people around the world to engage in, and share these activities. Change.org for example, seems to attract an inordinate number of petitions from DCEU fans. Here are some of the activities that are most suitable to their fandoms.
Apple may finally fix the pesky and obtrusive volume HUD that annoyingly sits right in the centre of the screen. https://dgit.in/mar19-27
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GEEK-KEY
iOS 13 might remove Volume HUD
Aditya Madanapalle | aditya@digit.in
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STAR WARS: FAN FILMS
MIDDLE EARTH: LANGUAGES
Tolkien changed modern fantasy as we known it, bringing about a familiar medieval universe with elves, orcs and dwarves. Fantasy before Tolkien was very similar to fairy tales. In his storytelling, Tolkien used the approach of reconstruction used by linguists. Tolkien also wrote the stories around multiple languages, complete with their own histories. Considering the richness of these constructed languages, Ringers or Tolkienites like to learn the languages, speak in them, and use the various scripts. The elvish languages of Quenya and Sindarin are popular for speaking, while the Tengwar and Cirth scripts are used by those who like to write.
88 | Digit | March 2019 | www.digit.in
Star Wars fans started making an increasing number of fan films, after the widespread availability of 3D and special effects software. There are even annual Star Wars fan film awards, with prizes given to different categories such as animation, special effects, action and comedy. George Lucas himself selects one film to get a special award. If you want to get in on the action, but do not want to invest your time or resources in making an entire film, Star Wars Uncut is a collaborative project that you can participate in. The original trilogy movies are divided into short clips, and fans are invited to submit their versions, produced any which way.
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