TechnoLife: Consciousness is tied to 'entropy', say researcher...

TechnoLife: Consciousness is tied to 'entropy', say researcher...: Well connected: is the entropy of neuronal networks linked to consciousness? Consciousness appears to arise naturally as a result of a...

Consciousness is tied to 'entropy', say researchers Oct 18, 2016 3 comments

Well connected: is the entropy of neuronal networks linked to consciousness?
Consciousness appears to arise naturally as a result of a brain maximizing its information content. So says a group of scientists in Canada and France, which has studied how the electrical activity in people's brains varies according to individuals' conscious states. The researchers find that normal waking states are associated with maximum values of what they call a brain's "entropy".
Statistical mechanics is very good at explaining the macroscopic thermodynamic properties of physical systems in terms of the behaviour of those systems' microscopic constituent particles. Emboldened by this success, physicists have increasingly been trying to do a similar thing with the brain: namely, using statistical mechanics to model networks of neurons. Key to this has been the study of synchronization – how the electrical activity of one set of neurons can oscillate in phase with that of another set. Synchronization in turn implies that those sets of neurons are physically tied to one another, just as oscillating physical systems, such as pendulums, become synchronized when they are connected together.
The latest work stems from the observation that consciousness, or at least the proper functioning of brains, is associated not with high or even low degrees of synchronicity between neurons but by middling amounts. Jose Luis Perez Velazquez, a biochemist at the University of Toronto, and colleagues hypothesized that what is maximized during consciousness is not connectivity itself but the number of different ways that a certain degree of connectivity can be achieved.
Many ways of connecting
Perez Velazquez's colleague Ramon Guevarra Erra, a physicist at the Paris Descartes University, points out that there is only one way to connect each set of neurons in a network with every other set, just as there is only one way to have no connections at all. In contrast, he notes, there are many different ways that an intermediate medium-sized number of connections can be arranged.
To put their hypothesis to the test, the researchers used data previously collected by Perez Velazquez showing electric- and magnetic-field emissions from the brains of nine people, seven of whom suffered from epilepsy. With emissions recorded at dozens of places across the subjects' scalps, the researchers analysed every possible pairing of these data "channels" to establish whether the emissions in each case were in phase with one another. They added up the number of synchronized pairs and plugged that figure along with the total number of all possible pairings into a fairly straightforward statistical formula to work out how many different brain configurations that level of synchronicity yields. They then took the logarithm of that number to establish the brain's entropy.
The data were analysed in two parts. In one, they compared the emissions from four of the epileptic patients when undergoing a seizure and when in a normal "alert" state. In the second, they compared emissions from the other five individuals when sleeping and when awake. In both cases, the bottom line was the same: subjects' brains display higher entropy, or a higher value of a similar quantity known as Lempel–Ziv (LZ) complexity, when in a fully conscious state.
Varying results
Guevarra Erra admits that the results are not watertight. Indeed, the LZ complexity of one of the four epileptic patients in the first analysis showed no change between seizure and alert states (although that person did remain conscious during part of the seizure). In another individual, LZ complexity actually increased in the second analysis while that person was asleep. Guevarra Erra says that he and his colleagues didn't carry out a statistical analysis of their results in part because of the "very heterogeneous" nature of those results. But he nevertheless remains "highly confident" that the correlations they have identified are real.

Windows 10 update traps some systems in a boot loop, Microsoft promises fix

Microsoft insists that this problem only affected people in the Windows Insider Program, though it has not explained why others not in that program would have been impacted by the latest patch. A fix has been pushed out for the issues but the company has provided no details into what went wrong or what the patch fixes. The supposed link to a knowledge base (KB) article that’s supposed to describe the problem is actually dead as of this writing.

Original story below:

For well over a year, Microsoft has tried to position Windows 10 as a new type of operating system — one that’s continually updated without allowing for meaningful customer intervention, with security, driver, and software updates combined together by default and updated on Microsoft’s timeline. Pro customers can delay updates for a period of time, but non-enterprise users aren’t allowed to push them off indefinitely.

The company has repeatedly promised that by giving up this control, its customers will receive more timely updates, features, and improvements. It’s the kind of promise that requires an ironclad commitment to shipping stable software — and Microsoft has been dropping the ball in myriad ways ever since Windows 10 launched. Last week’s update for Windows 10 Anniversary Edition (KB3194496) has trapped some users in an unending reboot loop.

Microsoft has told ZDNet that it’s already in the process of fixing the problem and will release an updated script in the near future. The problem doesn’t affect all users, but issues like this often leave me wondering how machines trapped in an endless boot loop are supposed to get the fix in the first place. Presumably the company will release instructions on how to short-circuit the boot loop manually and apply the appropriate patch.

Part of why this is making waves is because the problem was reported by early adopters before the patch ever went live to the larger community. Microsoft apparently either ignored that feedback or never read it in the first place. Prior to 2014, Windows releases were evaluated by an extensive programmatic testing team within Microsoft itself, but Satya Nadella gutted this division when he became CEO. In its place, Microsoft rolled out a system in which developers were expected to troubleshoot their own code, with remaining QA resources dedicated to real-world tests and troubleshooting.

In theory, the above should’ve allowed Microsoft to roll updates more quickly and improve its software on a more rapid cadence. We have seen new Windows 10 features appear more rapidly than previous iterations of the operating system. Along with those benefits, however, has come a series of problems. For example, Windows 10 Anniversary Edition broke most webcams because it no longer supports compressed data streams, which the vast majority of webcams rely on in order to function. At least some Kindle devices crashed Windows 10 AU when plugged in, and Microsoft’s KB3176934 broke PowerShell. Last year, the company pushed an update that removed software from users’ systems after erroneously flagging it as incompatible with Windows 10.



None of these issues are show-stoppers in and of themselves. There have always been Windows patches that caused problems on a small number of machines, and that’s inevitably going to happen when you have 400 million devices running any operating system given that Windows 10 can run on hardware that’s 10+ years old. But as John Dvorak points out on PCMag.com, this problem takes on an entirely different dimension given how Microsoft now forces people to take updates whether they like it or not. You can still prevent Windows 10 from updating, to be clear — the Windows Update service can be manually deactivated. But this is a brute-force solution to the problem that exposes users to significant security risks.

One potential explanation for how these problems keep slipping through is that Microsoft doesn’t recommend Windows Insiders test fast ring deployments on primary sy

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HACK BRIEF: YAHOO BREACH HITS HALF A BILLION USERS

 EDITOR’S NOTE: THIS story was updated at 4 p.m. to include new information after Yahoo’s announcement of its data breach.

Over recent months, the ghosts of data breaches past have been returning to plague companies like MySpace, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Tumblr, as hackers put up for sale massive collections of user credentials stolen earlier in the decade. It seems the summer of ginormous data spills isn’t over yet and just reached a new peak. Yahoo confirmed on Thursday afternoon the theft of personal information of half a billion of its users. The announcement comes at a very inconvenient moment: Just as the web giant is trying to sell itself to Verizon in a multi-billion dollar deal.

The Hack
Yahoo chief information security officer Bob Lord wrote in a statement on Yahoo’s Tumblr site that the company had been the victim of a hacker intrusion in late 2014 that accessed at least 500 million accounts and retrieved a bounty of information, including user names, email addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth, security questions and answers, and passwords—albeit passwords protected by cryptographic hashing. “We have confirmed that a copy of certain user account information was stolen from the company’s network in late 2014 by what it believes is a state-sponsored actor,” Lord writes. “An increasingly connected world has come with increasingly sophisticated threats. Industry, government and users are constantly in the crosshairs of adversaries.”

Earlier Thursday Recode reported that Yahoo was expected to confirm a data breach that affects hundreds of millions of users. The site referenced a collection of 200 million of Yahoo’s user names, birthdates, email addresses and hashed passwords that’s been offered for sale on the dark web marketplace The Real Deal since at least August.

Here's what you need to know about the Yahoo breach that compromised half a billion users' data: bit.ly/2deN4qx

Below are some of the uses of technology today:

1.   Use of Technology in Business: Today businesses can save money by using technology to perform certain tasks. When you compare the amount of money spent on hiring an individual to perform a certain task and to guarantee delivery on time, it is totally expensive. When it comes to technology a small business can scale out and deliver more with less human resource.
For example: If you operate a manufacturing business, instead of hiring so many people to work in certain section , you can replace that labor with a ”PLC” programmed production line which will automate the all process of manufacturing . The benefits of using a ”PLC” , is that productivity and accuracy will be better and first compared to using individuals.
Lets take another example: For retail inventories, they don’t have to employ more people to manage and keep track the number of inventories. All they have to do is to use database systems which can be accessed remotely. This will make inventory data more accessible to whoever needs it with in the company. This will cut off delays in delivery of this information and makes the work.
In conclusion businesses will need to use technology to speed up their services and cut down on costs. Though technology can’t do certain things, but it reduces on time and money.
RELATED:
:- Technology in the Business World – New Business Technology 2013
:-What Is Technology Used For In Business – 7 Uses of Technology In Business
 2.  The Use of technology in communication:  Unlike in the past when communication was limited to letter writing and waiting for those postal services to deliver your message. Today technology has made the field of communications so easy.  Now you can draft a business message and email it or fax in a second without any delays, the recipient will get the message an they will reply you instantly.

• Also technology has made business meetings so simple, with the introduction of video conferencing; you no longer have to worry to be late for a business meeting. Now with this video conferencing technology, you can be in the meeting in a virtual form and engage with your partners directly.

• Also technology has made it simple to get feed back from your clients on instant:  This has been aided by the introductions of online business to consumer portals like ’’Facebook Business Pages’’.  As a business, you will can get responses and suggestions from your customers via social network portals.  All you need is to create your business page and promote it, so your clients will always post what they want on your wall and suggest areas of improvement.  This will save you money on direct mail surveys and other means of getting information from your consumers.

Sites for  video conferencing:
 Accuconference.com : Use vide conferencing tools for ”Accuconference” and you will have face to face meetings just like as if you were in the same room. This technology will save you a lot of time and money.
vidyo.com : This is a leading provider of personal  tele-presence for big enterprises. Their technology enables HD multipoint video conferencing and video collaboration

3.  Use of technology in human relationships:  As the world develops, people are getting more carried away with their work and carries. Today a lot is demanded so every one is busy to have time to find a relationship. So technology has also filled this part. With technology you can connect and meet new people while at work using social network technology.  You can also use technology to find a new date without living your work.  Now days people use mobile phone apps to meet and connect with new and old friends. Social networks like Facebook.com , Tagged.com have played a big role in connecting both old and new relationships.
 However, virtual relationships are not as strong as physical relationships, so I advice you to take off time and meet these people you network with virtually and get to know each other better.  On the other note, people who over participate in virtual relationships, end up with no friends in real life and they develop a diseases called cyber-sickness and loneliness.
Apps for Dating:
Badoo.com : This is a social network for people searching for mates. You can connect with any one and communicate with them for free. Get App: Get app here

Match.com : This app has connected more people in the world and most of these connections have resulted into real marriages. Get App: Get app here

Twoo : This app helps people connect with others by recommending basing on potential match and interests. Get App : Get app here

Eharmony : With this app, connections are based on various dimensions of which will result into a long term relationship. For those in need of long term relationships, i recommend Eharmony App. Get App:Get app here

4.  Use of technology in education: Today, technology has made a very big change in the education world. With the invention of technological gadgets and mobile apps which helps students learn easily.  Now days you can access a full library via a mobile app on any smart phone or ipad. Before inventing this technology, students had to go to physical libraries to get the information they need. some of these library Apps include
Apps for Education:
. The Library App – It brings the library in your hands.
. My Library: With this app , you can catalog your books by scanning the ISBN with your ipad camera and it helps students get access to free eBooks.
. Book Crawler: This app will solve the book cataloging problem for students, and it also has a location awareness which will help a student see what others around them are reading.
. Library Books: This App can track multiple library cards and let you know when you’ve got a book coming due.
The list is endless, but this is good example to show you that technology has made education simple.

RELATED:-  The Use of Technology – In Education and Teaching Process

5.   Use of technology in purchasing:  Technology has also made the buying and selling of good so flexible. With the introduction e-payment systems like Paypal.com  and Square Wallet App , users can easily purchase any thing online without living the comfort of their homes.
For you to use paypal , you will have to sign up with the site for free, then connect your debit card details so that money is transferred from your physical bank account to your electronic PayPal account. So when you go to a store like Amazon.com , you can use your PayPal electronic credit to buy anything on AMAZON.COM . This has made purchasing of items so easy.
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Your Life

An explanation of life

What is Reality?

There are things we know and things we don't know. There are also things that we think we know, but are false. Things we know include, cloudless skies are blue, being loved feels good, cement is hard, water is wet, etc. Things we think we know, but are really false, might include the world is flat, people that think differently from us are wrong, life needs to be hard, etc.

Beliefs, assumptions and misinformation

In life you will notice that everyone has different beliefs about what is reality. Some of these things are correct and others aren't. We often do not know which is which. We take other people's word for many things in life. Sometimes they know what they are talking about, and sometimes they don't. In my opinion much of what we believe, assume or are told is fact, is really misinformation and not true. Fortunately we have the ability to change our minds about things and create a new reality for ourselves.

Who or what to trust?

There is so much we do not know, and so much that we think we know - but don't, and so much that other people think they know - but don't. This makes me very cautious about believing anything that I am told on an intellectual level. I think in many cases trusting our hearts (or "gut feelings") is much more beneficial than relying on our intellect. Even the experts on particular subjects are consistently proven wrong.

We each get to choose our reality

The main point is that we need to be careful about imposing our beliefs on other people. We each have the right to choose what is right for us and at the same time we must be tolerant of other people's opinions and beliefs. There are many ways of looking at life. Choosing an open-minded, optimistic, happy outlook on life will be most gratifying.

Choose a life of peace, love and joy!

We can change our reality by changing our minds about things. If someone harms us, we have a choice of hating them and expending lots of energy contemplating revenge or self-pity, or forgiving them and letting that energy be used for more constructive purposes. If our beliefs cause us to be defensive or overly critical of others, becoming more tolerant and understanding of other people's beliefs may make our lives more peaceful and joyful.

I wish for you a life filled with love, joy, peace and prosperity, secure in the knowledge that there are many ways of looking at life. You have the ability to create the best possible life for yourself.