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huawei

Huawei to Offer IT Training to 200,000 Youth

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With Huawei’s assistance, Pakistan is escalating its efforts to prepare its youth for the future. This development has been welcomed with enthusiasm and optimism from young Pakistanis, who now feel that their skills will be a valuable asset in today’s demanding global market. Starting next month, the Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication, Shaza Fatima Khawaja, has announced a large-scale training program in IT and AI which brings the young population one step closer to operating in a hybrid workplace.

Recently, Khawaja during budget reviews praised this partnership with Huawei, which was a result of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s last trip to China, for it intends to teach information technology to two hundred thousand youths in Pakistan. This ambitious endeavor shows the government’s efforts in further developing the ICT (Information Communications Technology) industry, among the youth, who form a massive 70 percent of Pakistan’s population. The ultimate objective is to ensure that they are employable in one of the fastest expanding sectors today

Initially, the training program will target approximately 150, 000 people who are drawn from IT and AI-specialized courses lasting from three to six months. These will help acquire competencies that are essential in landing lucrative employment opportunities in Pakistan as well as overseas. As young people in Pakistan acquire these skills, the program is projected not only to enhance their job opportunities but also add economic value to the country.

This cooperation and training program is a significant stride towards the digitalization of Pakistan and offers fresh prospects to a new generation which is willing to create, innovate and become the torchbearers in strengthening the technology driven economy of the country.

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ai chip compete with nvdia

Huawei Develops New AI Chip to Compete with Nvidia in China

Huawei ai chip compete with nvdia
Huawei ai chip compete with nvdia

Huawei to Unveil Competing AI Chip in ChinaThis time, the Chinese market will get a new version of Ascend 910CCategory: IC | Tags: TSMC Robbie G. As Reuters reported this week, Huawei has now taken the step to build EASC chips on its own — a decision that is part of Huawei’s broader effort in response to US restrictions on Nvidia’s top-end chips inside China.

 

Verified over the past few weeks with some of China’s top internet and telecom companies, chipmaker. This announcement reportedly has many potential buyers excited, with Huawei telling them that performance of the AI chip is similar to Nvidia’s H100 and this news likely contributes towards public tech giants in China looking for both powerful computing solutions but also one they can source domestically.

This follows similar moves from last year when U.S. regulations prohibited Nvidia to sell its high-end H100 chip and other related chips in China due to national security reasons. In turn, Nvidia released retooled variants such as the H20 specifically for China. Nonetheless, such modifications have constraints in terms of computing power as a result of the bans thus providing an empty demand that any new Huawei chip could now fulfill.

With the Ascend 910C set to start shipping as soon as October, reports suggest that ByteDance, Baidu and China Mobile are among those already lining up with orders. However, preliminary talks believed that sales of the Ascend 910C could exceed 70,000 units which values the deal to an approximately $2 billion;

A successful launch not only allows us to compete in-kind with Nvidia at home, but also helps build up China’s ambitions for AI and high-performance computing, especially since the Americans have been trying so hard to hamper their tech achievements.

 

YouTube unveils their new paid subscription service at the YouTube Space LA in Playa Del Rey, Los Angeles, California, United States October 21, 2015. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson

youtube merging short and long videos

YouTube Experiments with Merging Shorts and Long-Form Videos in a Single Feed

youtube merging short and long videos
youtube merging short and long videos

Watch: YouTube Is Trying An All-New Method To Improve Video Viewing In The Platform In testing the ability to intermix longer clips and reach an even wider audience, popular outlets such as Shorts feed (a collection of fast cuts) would allow users to lengthen their pieces. Shorts currently fetches an incredible 70 billion views daily, and YouTube wants to capitalise on that mileage by introducing more video types in different formats.

YouTube said if its statement about the experiment, “To help viewers more easily find new content from across channels, formats and lengths on YouTube we are running a few experiments on the Watch Page as well with Shorts. If part of the test, you will see a combination of videos types on pages where typically just shorter ones appeared in only.

This marks a departure in YouTube strategy: to leverage the massive audience for Shorts as an on-ramp to longer form content. That does, however, beg the question — doing so would make for a round peg in the square hole that is Shorts’ vertical feed structure.

In the case of YouTube Shorts, they have been a juggernaut for engagement—an antidote to long and often slow-moving content—attracted many users who love fast-food format. Since the primary reason you would want to recommend more video types is because it can help keep folks engaged in other formats as well, but we have yet to see how people actually respond.

And more broadly, potential harm for creators. YouTube also said that long-form videos appearing in the Shorts Feed, would be detected by YouTube Analytics as a Short (a move which may potentially make it hard for creators to track performance of their shorts) That ambitious long-term vision of creating a 100 percent vertically-aligned viewing experience — essentially none of what we’re testing today, but it does set the table for future updates.

It will be worth keeping an eye on whether moving in this direction prompts more engagement with long-form videos, or if users continue to consume content from the Shorts feed due to its short format.

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saudi gamer sets record

Saudi Gamer Sets New Record by Connecting 444 Consoles to a Single TV

saudi gamer sets record
saudi gamer sets record

Saudi gamer Ibrahim Al-Nasser has grabbed headlines around the world and a long-contented spot in the Guinness World Records after managing to connect 444 video game consoles to one TV. (AFP) Gaming fans from around the planet are now celebrating this feat that required considerable preparation and a huge pile of cables.

Al-Nasser, a lifelong gamer himself said that this massive setup began thanks to an all-too-familiar problem for gamers: using up multiple TV ports on various video game console systems. I had all of these video gaming systems collecting dust as a result. I managed a line up for the TV then I realised “WAIT ITS GETTING FULL WHAT SHOULD IDO SOON ITLL FELL OVER ilplug 1 and replace it with another”… you see the process just kept going, there were only so many ports in that damn tv; Al-Nasser declared.

But more than a bunch of cables and consoles, this is an immaculate display. Al-Nasser keeps track of the company’s extensive number connections in an Excel file on his spreadsheet to more easily manage a sprawling web of over 30 RCA switchers, along with 12 HDMI switchers and various adapters. Every console a path, to the TV it requires. He said, if I did not track it all, I would lose count.

Al-Nasser said was driven to impart something special beyond just simply playing games, and described it as a kind of “gaming museum”. This included managing and concealing cables neatly so the whole setup looked incredible as well as operating efficiently. We also really tried to hide the cables. I made full use of all available tools to categorize the former lines conveniently. It is no mere gaming set-up; it’s a museum of video game history.

With such a broad range of systems, Al-Nasser’s collection is nothing if not eclectic and extensive: it features everything from early heavyweights like the Magnavox Odyssey to latecomers-in-other-markets-but-beloved-elsewhere oddities like Nintendo Switch and super-rarites-such-as-the-Super A’Can. Questioned about his personal favorite, he didn’t mince words: “To me, the best gaming console of all time is the Sega Genesis.”

This world record achievement by Al-Nasser just adds an outstanding accomplishment to his name while also shedding light that gaming is not only a prepared for some, but it has solid roots within the community of Saudi Arabia. Its not just playing video games, its an homage to the history and evolution of gaming.

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Instagram on blockchain

Instagram on blockchain: Instagram CEO Calls for Big Tech to Relinquish Control

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In a broader sense, this also fits with the general promise of Web3.0 — and indeed dovetails into an op-ed from Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri earlier in October where he said that his vision was for every internet user to own their data via blockchain tech too. Mosseri described this pivot as a development which could help to redefine data ownership in the way that all of us who use social media have exactly total control over our very own cat pics and wedding announcements, ending big techs’ ability to simply access it.

This is a game changer model Web3 for content creators. He envisions a world where creators are independent from the likes of Instagram or TikTok and can own their relationship with fans as well as control data. This way creators can keep subscriber lists and the relationships with followers that they built; even if they move away or their account gets taken down. This as Mosseri put it, is a “meaningful redistribution of power from platforms like Instagram to creators,” and I agree with him.

Contact Exposing customers to Web3 may also have another material benefit for creators: allowing them access to equity crowdfunding earlier in their career than ever before, according to Mosseri. Creators engaging with fans on Web3 would allow those who believe in the creator to support a project from day one, creating even more of an invested and vibrant community.

Mosseri argues that Web3 may put platforms in a place to willingly lose control — at least over certain systems and data structures… for the greater good! He added that the subscription market ballooning was a big driver and that platforms might make moves to enable user control as part of a longer-term pivot toward making an internet more responsive to users.

He also floated the idea that creators could surface and cultivate a following on popular platforms like Instagram, YouTube—without necessarily relying on subscriptions—but then use those established profiles to leverage Web3 for subscription-based monetization in order to secure an independent relationship with one’s audience away from any single platform.

Under Mosseri’s Web3 dream, content creators would have massive leverage; it could eventually lead to a world where users and creators are actually in control. This vision crystallizes just how Web3 can completely redefine digital sovereignty and reshape the interactions of both data ownership, as well as creative autonomy – not to be an aside consumer tech struggles for — but rather core principles governing our every online experience.

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largest gaming trade show

Global Video Gaming Community Prepares for the Largest Trade Show Ever

the biggest gaming event to welcome more than 300 000 enthusiasts from around the globe photo gsmescom website

The world’s largest video game trade show, Gamescom, opens its doors on Tuesday in Germany, arriving at a challenging time for an industry grappling with layoffs and studio closures.

Organizers anticipate that the event, running until Sunday in the western city of Cologne, will attract over 300,000 attendees. Companies are generating excitement with upcoming major releases such as “Indiana Jones and the Great Circle” and “Call of Duty: Black Ops 6.”

The video game industry is projected to generate over $180 billion in revenue this year and attract more than 3.4 billion players, according to the Newzoo analyst firm. However, sales are still below the peaks experienced during the pandemic.

Explanation

While smaller studios face survival challenges, major publishers are implementing significant cost-cutting measures, leading to thousands of layoffs.

“I see studios that inspired me going out of business, and it terrifies me.” David Rabineau , French developer

Sharp Downturn

According to Game Industry Layoffs, a website that tracks industry layoffs, companies have laid off at least 11,000 workers so far this year, surpassing the total for all of 2023.

American company Bungie, known for “Halo” and “Destiny,” is the latest to announce significant layoffs, revealing last month that it would cut 220 positions—17 percent of its workforce. The game maker, acquired by Sony in 2022, cited an attempt to expand too rapidly and a “sharp downturn in the games industry” as reasons for the layoffs.

Rabineau, a frequent attendee of Gamescom, noted that publishers are reducing their budgets and becoming more selective . “They want to take less and less risk,” he observed.

Stephane Rappeneau, a professor of video game economics at the Sorbonne in Paris, explained that publishers are facing difficulties. During the pandemic boom, investment firms heavily invested in video games, but now they are shifting to  artificial intelligence.

Aging Consoles

Mat Piscatella, an analyst at US market research firm Circana, described the past year as “tumultuous.” He noted that the three major consoles—Nintendo’s Switch, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series—are past their peak performance.

Piscatella also pointed out that older games such as “Fortnite,” “Minecraft,” and “League of Legends” continue to dominate player engagement and spending, overshadowing new releases.

Gamescom’s publicity has focused heavily on upcoming game announcements. However, according to Newzoo, games released before 2018 accounted for nearly 61 percent of total time. Spent playing on computers and consoles worldwide last year, excluding China and India.

“Breaking through with new video games has never been more difficult,” remarked Piscatella. Despite these challenges, he remains optimistic about the industry’s recovery. The anticipated release of “Grand Theft Auto VI” next year and the launch of a successor to Nintendo’s Switch are expected to provide a significant boost.

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australia largest solar power hub

Australia Approves World's Largest Solar Hub to Power 3 Million Homes

australia to build largest ever solar electricity hub photo pixabay

Australia just approved SunCable’s $24 billion, potentially the world’s largest solar farm/battery. Set to also deliver 15% of Singapore’s energy needs via an undersea cable, this pioneering venture (based in northern outback Australia) will become the world largest solar farm.

It is supported by environmental approvals and expected to be operational in 2030, backed by tech billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes who has been pushing green credentials. Absolute: The project will provide four gigawatts for domestic consumption and two more which can be exported. Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek said the solar farm was an “important milestone that puts Australia at the front of renewable energy technology.

It encompasses an enormous range of solar panels and battery storage, with additional approvals required from authorities in Singapore, Indonesia and local Indigenous communities. It’s a landmark moment for SunCable and demonstrates the tide is turning, but there are still many hurdles to overcome in delivering our vision of exporting solar electricity from Australia which gives us serious pause as we ramp up towards project FID by 2027.

China Heads Global Renewables With Monstrous Solar FarmsAustralia’s SunCable Will Make Country World’s ‘Stewart’ Of Clean Energy Coalilotion: A project in northern Australia that our own coal-huggers love and the Federal Coalition would also support is expected to create 14,300 jobs It couldn’t help but plug a hole into support both net-zero by bed year dot oh; it so could!

Australian National University’sKen Baldwin and the Climate Council’sAmanda McKenzie welcomed these moves as “bold”, given both argued solar plus storage in needed at scale to support a higher- than-ever energy grid. SunCable, which is delivering PV power pricing competitive with new coal and existing gas-fired generation in northern Australia where it has the best solar resource of any densely populated area on earth, will play a critical role as renewables made up 32% of Australian electricity supply in year-ended 2022.

And for Cannon-Brookes — a former climate skeptic turned invest-in-SunCable evangelist— the solar hub is an enormous step in the direction to that brighter, cleaner future.

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lifi ultra fast internet

Li-Fi: Is It the Future of Ultra-Fast Internet?

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The Internet envisionment is that of an Internet that is 100 times faster than today Wi-Fi and based on light. That is a possibility when using Li-Fi or Light Fidelity that could soon change how the world connects. Here’s why Li-Fi is so promising, and why it has been described as the new frontier of Internet connections.

What Exactly is Li-Fi?


While Li- Fi appears to be a variation of Wi- Fi, Li- Fi actually transmits data through light. This way, data moves through brief flashlights that emanate from LED bulbs—more like sign language in morse code. Even though we never see these pulses, Li-Fi enabled devices can easily decode them and that makes the process extremely rapid and effective.

First idea of this technology is dates back to early 2000s when it was proposed by German physicist Harald Haas and his team. The idea came to light when Oldecomm, a French company, started testing with Li-Fi in 2008 resulting to recent testing by Europe’s Ariane 6 rocket during its launch.

Speed and Efficiency: What Makes Li-Fi Stand Out?
Though introduced several years later than Wi-Fi, Li-Fi has further developed the possibilities of wireless connectivity at a much higher level – Li-Fi speed is hundreds of times higher than Wi-Fi versions starting from the initial one that appeared in 1996. Where Li-Fi is implemented in a controlled environment, its speed has reached 224000 megabits per second, which means is futuristic for applications such as smart cities, virtual reality, Full HD Streaming and online games. Thanks to extreme low latency and high data transfer rates, Li- Fi has a great potential to be soon used in various challenging tech environments.

Is Li-Fi Safer?


Li-Fi, however, has several gains as far as security and health are concerned. Because it uses light waves to convey its signal, it cannot penetrate walls in homes or offices. This containment within illuminated areas restricts people who have no business in such areas, enhancing the security since these sectors in the defense and government among others need to protect their data. Further, since Li-Fi does not interact with electromagnetic devices, Li-Fi may be more advantageous in some environments, such as a hospital or an airplane.

Where is Li-Fi Headed?


While furtheruble still in the research state within the United States, Li-Fi is on the move across various sectors. The LiFi Group of the present author, which provides end-to-end LiFi solutions, points to such advantages as the high level of data protection and applicability of LiFi in certain sectors such as aviation, healthcare and consumer electronics. Today, the American VLNComm in Virginia and Signify in the state of New Jersey are trying to advance Li-Fi in the United States.

In their view, a representative of the LiFi Group says that it is driven by the need for business, learning, and even leisure that requires stable, fast connection where Wi-Fi fails. The automotive sector, telecommunications and consumer electronics are some of the industries that have taken interest in Li-Fi, Oldecomm expects actually expanded commitments could start occurring between 2024-2029.

The Takeaway
Li-Fi creates interesting opportunities that may revolutionize the notion of Internet connection as it were with unique speed, security and effectiveness. It is as yet a minor trend, but the attention and money that are flowing its way show us that this exciting new technology is only just getting started.

Keep an eye on Li-Fi. It just might light up our future with faster safer and smarter connectivity.

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Elon Musk Criticizes Mark Zuckerberg

Elon Musk Criticizes Mark Zuckerberg for Protecting Meta Amid Child Exploitation Controversy

courtesy reuters

But it doesn’t take long for the Musk and Zuckerberg duo to agitate the deeper battle between big tech’s censorship of content moderation once again. This time, Musk is not holding back and is going for Zuckerberg’s jugular by plainly calling the Meta CEO out for focus on censorship while failing on the issues of child exploitation on Instagram.

The Accusations


It all started when German activist Naomi Seibt asking why Zuckerberg does not have any legal problems in regards to Instagram’s current problem of child abuse. Seibt made a parallel to Telegram founder Pavel Durov, who was recently arrested in France over content moderation issues on his site. Seibt’s post claimed that Instagram has connections to significant pedophilia in cases of human trafficking and child exploitation, which we all know elicited a sharp reaction from Musk.

Child exploitation

problems persist on Instagram, Musk said that Meta has been able to avoid responsibility for most of them. He escalated this thinking that by giving authorities the keys to all the user data, Zuckerberg has handled it better than others such as Durov who despite avoiding legal troubles, did not do so successfully.

Social Media Reactions


This statement of Musk generated a lot of commentary on social media after it went viral almost immediately. As Musk pointed out, other users pointed out that Meta is trying too hard to censor and that the focus should be on providing an actual way to report child abuse on Instagram. This has once again sparked controversies on the role of technology companies in moderating content between addressing security issues of users and safeguarding their right to free speech.

A Comparison with Telegram’s Pavel Durov
While the public discusses Instagram’s policies, its founder, Pavel Durov also experiences own legal issues at Telegram. Detained last month at Le Bourget airport in France, Durov has been criticized for failing to adequately address violent content on Telegram. Local authorities have accused Telegram of association with crimes to include drug peddling because of perceived poor regulation policies on the contents disseminated. Some countries have even gone ahead of thinking to completely block wg com or banning Telegram due to increased worry over its moderation process.

Rivalry Heats Up


This is not the first time that Musk and Zuckerberg have locked horns, and I do not think that it will be the last time. Both have made vitriolic commentary of the other’s companies in the past. Musk has recently accused Meta of overhyping its advertising strategy, suggesting that the company’s methods represent the complete opposite of those of his businesses. It even got to a rather strange level, where both of them proposed a verge of a “cage fight’ which was in the public domain though it was discarded.

The Takeaway


Elon Musk’s fresh rip-off of Zuckerberg is a perfect example of a broader conversation of whether or not big tech contributes to prioritizing user privacy and censorship over safety. While these behemo/searches for insights into how platforms respond to critical issues such as child exploitation is keen. For now, the Musk-Zuckerberg feud is nothing more than an amplification of the challenges, and conflicts, associated with managing two of the world’s most powerful social media networks.

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china robots conference

China Robots Conference Highlights the Evolving Landscape of Humanoids

World Robot Conference in Beijing

China is running at the forefront of developing humanoid robotics, and its supply chain demonstrated durable and novel parts during the recent World Robot Conference in Beijing. However, it indicates that Chinese companies are looking for ways to reduce the costs and increase their efficiency, however, reliability problems still remain a serious threat, according to the industry analysts.

Among them is Wisson Technology – a Shenzhen based firm well-known for producing robotic arms. Moreover, the motors and reducers employed in Wisson are unconventional; the company replaces them with 3D printed plastics and pneumatic artificial muscles, which makes production cheaper and easier. As Cao Wei, a partner of Lanchi Ventures who invested in Wisson pointed out such approach lowers the cost of assembling Wisson’s robotic arms to ten percent of that typical industrial robotic arms costing some 10,000 yuan ($1,404). This pricing, Cao says, could explain why Wisson’s technology is especially attractive to manufacturers of humanoid robots. However, Wisson has already shipped sample to some of the overseas manufacturers.

However, cost efficiency initiation is one side of the picture. I will look at some of the current issues plaguing electromechanical product design and manufacturing, which were echoed by Yi Gang, the founder of Ti5 Robot located in Shanghai when discussing with them: Yi said that still because of defects, his firm is only able to manufacture a limited number of products at a time, which affects growth.

The opportunities that China sees in robotics are well-woven into the country’s president Xi Jinping’s agenda of developing “new productive forces” in technology, a concept that dominated the conference. From manufacturing to agriculture, healthcare to home services, China is using these developments to recast the world’s largest industrial robot market. But the reliability challenge will be important to overcome if, indeed, China wants to lead in the robotics sector going forward.

 

Annual installations of industrial robots

Reuters Graphics

Gao Jiyang, who was an executive at the autonomous driving start-up Momenta and is the founder of the new company Galaxea AI, which focuses on robots’ hardware and embodied AI, is convinced that progress in autonomous driving is driving advances in robotics. “Therefore, autonomous vehicles are akin to a robot which employs complicated AI,” Gao pointed out how smart driving technology also fits under robotics advancement.

During the closing ceremony of the World Robot Conference Premier Li Qiang outlined the Chinese position and claimed that China is heading in the chosen direction under Xi’s leadership and in accordance with his vision of the robotics industry development. As reported by the Xinhua News Agency, Li pointed to robotics as to the indicator of the technological advancement and high end manufacturing. More specifically, he called for more stability in the supply chain and highlighted the insurmountable market for robotics. Whereas, regarding these opportunities, Li called for more extensive application of robotization in manufacturing, agriculture, and service industries to enhance the competitive position of China as a glorious player in the human advancement of robotization.

Reuters Graphics

($1 = 7.1224 yuan)
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