Data Analysis - Use it !!

I was reading many developer's site and chat (telegram and whatsapp) when the government stated that they are looking for an app similar to Singapore apps to track the close contact of the Covid-19 positive patient.

In Singapore, they are using a technology which I presume is Bluetooth to ping close contact within the radiant of the tech and capture necessary data which then used to determine the contact and request them to perform screening. Here are some of the news:

1. https://www.thestar.com.my/tech/tech-news/2020/03/20/covid-19-singapore-launches-contact-tracing-mobile-app-to-track-coronavirus-infections
2. https://www.pymnts.com/coronavirus/2020/app-lets-singapore-track-virus-patients-movements/
3. https://www.nst.com.my/news/nation/2020/03/578445/smartphone-app-track-contacts-covid-19-patients
4. https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Coronavirus/Singapore-urges-citizens-to-sign-up-for-COVID-19-tracking-app

And the apps is available on Google Play and Apple Store

1. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=sg.gov.tech.bluetrace&hl=en
2. https://apps.apple.com/sg/app/tracetogether/id1498276074

And as this article is written, there are many groups including international are coming with various hackathons for apps that can be used to track all COVID-19 patients and their close contact.

In Malaysia, since the announcement, many had gather groups to develop apps.

From my perspective, why must we reinvent the wheel? Why we need to develop many apps when we already have few that are potentially be used for it. 

For instance, D'scover by Favioriot was developed for a user to explore whatever the user likes but also close contact that uses the apps. I believed they can just tweak the apps to get close contact for COVID-19 and it is much faster than building and testing new apps. (by the way, this is not promoting them and I don't gain anything from it :))

Not just that apps, people have been using Google Maps, Waze, Grab, etc. All these apps collected millions of data and one of these data is people's location and whereabouts. On top of that, all telcos do have their customer's data location and track their movement. I attended the Big Data conference by Bigit a few years ago where one of the telcos presented their data analysis. They have shown the heatmap of their user and based on the communication tower.

I even had a discussion with a few telcos when they approach us (my previous company) to provide their services and wish for data sharing. I do request to have a set of data of their customer whereabouts too to ensure we can provide efficient services at the moment the customer approaches our station or hub, or at the time they are supposed to do so.

These data can be utilized to find close contact with COVID-19 patients. From these data, we know where they go, their ride and whom the came across with or pass by. Of course, these data are secured by all those companies for customer's safety and PDPA compliance. But, for the sake of government and to combat COVID-19, they can request minimal information limited to the phone number to call the respective COVID-19 contact. 

You just need a group of data scientists and data engineers to focus on the massaging and provide the relevant info to the government fast and secure. That's all :)

Don't REINVENT the wheel. Used It and MAXIMIZE the POTENTIAL.

* My personal opinion based on experience. Agreed to disagree :)

Read More

Android - Solving Google Play and Wifi problem

Last 2 months, I bought for my kids 3 tablets (cheap tablet) made in China (of course nowadays there are many and most of the tablets are manufactured either by Taiwan or China). It was cheap (about RM800), it has Android 4.0 ice-cream, and it is just for my kids to play android games and browse internet. It is kind of worth buying for your kids especially when you have many kids with limited budget :)...

However, I spend quite lots of times to configure its Wifi and Google Play. And here is the tips I wish to share if you encounter the same problem.
 
Problem: Can't connected to Google play although your  Wifi is connected or you have problem to connect although you sit beside the wireless devices.


Solutions:
1. Ensure that you disable data roaming or check that you prefer wifi connection rather than mobile data network.

2. Please make sure you battery is not lower than 20%.

3. Ensure that your time and date is based on network. Do not set it to manual unless you don't want to be connected to wifi or google after successfully installed or download or done doing anything on the net.

4. If 1 - 3 doesn't work, then, you need to stop your Google Play connection, clear cache, and try to connect again.

5. If 4 doesn't work, the last option will be reset your factory setting or re-install your Android OS :)

If 5 doesn't work, if it is still under warranty, used it. Else, throw it away and look for new ones... :)

That's all Android fan :)...

Adios...

Read More

LabView for dummies

Where does LabView beginner needs to starts?

1. Go to NI.com and download the student's version.
2. LabView Technical Resource
3. Self-paced courses athttp://sine.ni.com/nips/cds/view/p/lang/en/nid/2281
4. LabVIEW for Scientists and Engineers (books by John Essick)

Read More

IASA Update

Becoming an Indispensable Partner™ Webinar - Tuesday, June 26th Iasa Global has partnered with executive coach, Steve Lishansky, who will be presenting several key principles and best practices for improving communication with clients, in an upcoming webinar for the Iasa community: Becoming an Indispensable Partner™ Tuesday, June 26th - 9:00am-10:30am (CDT) Becoming an Indispensable Partner™ positions you with your clients for easier access, earlier engagement, higher regard, and greater impact - the conditions that lead to much greater appreciation, respect and cooperation. How many times have your internal or external clients failed to understand not just your solutions, but the importance of those solutions to their own success?This webinar is focused on helping you understand and deploy complimentary skills that leverage the impact and value of your technical expertise with clients.  Reserve your space - Register Today!   Unlocking the Vault - A Look Inside the Iasa Content Repository The Iasa Content Repository is a collection of white papers, presentations, videos, interviews, articles and many other downloadable items from Iasa's international architect community. Take a look at some of the items in the collection to see what's available to you:    ►  = Member Exclusive ►   Making Friends & Influencing Decisions: Effective Selling Skills ■    On The Future of Architecture with Grady Booch ►   From Stakeholders to Models - It Is All a Matter of Viewpoints ■    Strengthening Leadership with Skills with Executive Coach, Nancy Schill ■    Iasa's Five Pillars of Archtiecture ■    The Future of Information Architecture Doing the Math - Valuing Architecture as Investment When people discuss architecture they often talk about architecture being more business focused and less IT focused. In fact, this statement has taken on the makings of a trend in and of itself. We often get caught in the hyperbole and grandiosity of statements about architecture instead of focusing on useful practical examples and things people can use today. The real opportunity to show value lies with an oft-misunderstood aspect of technology as an investment. . .  . . .Continue Reading Here    Three Keys to Evaluing Technology Techniques    We constantly hear people talking about value creation and architecting a solution or enterprise. From our perspective these things are semantically equivalent. The key skill in understanding value addition in business is valuation. What architecture teams in most businesses tend to lack is this additional value information. Yet value from technology investment is precisely what makes a design different from what you expect from an engineer. . .  . . .Continue Reading Here Enterprise Functionality: A Concept to Fix IT Sprawl The concept of "Enterprise Functionality" is something that a lot of organizations have been chasing after over the years. It is the universal collection of functionality that the business can build once and reuse over and over. It was the promise of Java 10 years ago. It was the promise of SOA as a reference point 5 years ago. The reality of this pursuit is not the window dressing. It's a conceptual change for the business and for IT. . . . . .Continue Reading Here Iasa Partner Events & Activities                                                                                                 *Please be advised that the contents of Iasa partner advertisements reflect the views of the partner, and do not reflect the official views, policies or endorsements of Iasa Global.

____________________________________________________________________________________ Iasa Global is the premier association focused on the IT architecture profession through the advancement of best practices, education and certification. Established in 2002, Iasa delivers programs and services to IT architects of all levels around the world. As a non-profit business association, we're dedicated to the advancement and sharing of issues related to software, infrastructure, information, and business architecture in the enterprise, product, education and government sectors.    Headquartered in Austin, Texas, Iasa is committed to improving the quality of IT architecture by developing and delivering standards, education and accredited certification programs and services. With more than 35 Chapters in over 25 countries, and a member base and readership of 60,000 professionals worldwide, Iasa is the leader for IT architecture profession. For more information, visit our website at  www.iasaglobal.org.  Sincerely, Iasa Global

Read More

Instagram - Another brilliant concepts after Facebook and Twitter

I'm really impressed with new idea/innovation especially when related to web where many people can share without boundaries. Instagram is another brilliant things appear after Facebook and Twitter. And they had share their secret with us so that others can become billionaire too. But, as you can see, there is nothing new inside it. It is the same things thought to us years ago especially to those people in research areas.

If you can read publications related to invention, innovation, and generating ideas and use tool like TRIZ, you'll realize that what Instagram did is the things we should always be doing; that is to keep it simple, don't re-invent the wheel, and recycle the proven technologies (but in different context). Above all, the solutions to our problem or the idea for new things is always there and have been done in somewhere else. We just need to think 'out-of-the-box'... :)

Article proposed to read:

1. http://instagram-engineering.tumblr.com/post/13649370142/what-powers-instagram-hundreds-of-instances-dozens-of
2. http://highscalability.com/blog/2012/4/9/the-instagram-architecture-facebook-bought-for-a-cool-billio.html

Read More

Malware Worm Spreading on Facebook – 45,000 Passwords Stolen So Far

The evolution of the Ramnit worm becomes more sinister at each turn. In August of last year, researchers discovered that hackers had altered the code so that the worm is able to bypass two-factor authentication systems. Now, it has been reengineered and has turned it’s ugly head to the 800 million members of Facebook.

Ramnit is known to attack windows executable files – (files ending with .exe), MS Office files and HTML documents. The worm’s goal is to steal sensitive  data such as user names, passwords, FTP credentials and browser cookies.

Seculert issued a warning today that the Ramnit worm, which has traditionally targeted financial login credentials, is now targeting Facebook users. At the time of the release, 45,000 login credentials had been stolen with most of those from users residing in the UK and France.



Security experts speculate that the compromised accounts are being used to spread malicious links on Facebook. There is also a growing and alarming trend of malware being targeted at social networks instead of spam emails. It was also mentioned that cyber criminals are profiting from the fact that careless users use the same password on multiple platforms.

We have warned several times in the past that it is essential for you to use a strong secure password, and do not use your Facebook password for any other accounts. If your Facebook account is hacked, you don’t want your email or banking account compromised as well.

For more password protection tips, check out the article below:

The Top Ten Commandments of Password Protection

It is also recommended that you keep your anti-virus software current and run scans frequently.
BitDefender Safego is a Facebook application you can install that will scan your News Feed and help keep you safe from malicious links on Facebook.

Copied from http://facecrooks.com/Internet-Safety-Privacy/malware-worm-spreading-on-facebook-45000-passwords-stolen-so-far.html

Others sites on this issue
- http://www.tehrantimes.com/component/content/article/94293
- http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2083118/Facebook-hacked-Ramnit-worm-stolen-passwords-45-000-users.html

Read More