As discussed in part 1 the pace of technological change in the previous decades has been unprecedented and the wheels of the machine that is scientific discovery and invention still continue to turn. In part one we saw that all elements of daily life, intellectual pursuits, or economic activities are affected.
The way we make, ship, market, and utilize items is always changing—a chain of procedures that covers a wide range of sectors including;
1. Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Artificial intelligence is a technology where interconnected devices learn, predict, adapt and become intelligent systems that can do tasks that human beings can perform and even become more complex. and that can learn and adapt will become more complex. Artificial intelligence systems are rapidly becoming popular and will soon be everywhere, including homes, offices, factories, and medical facilities.
Some include Amazon Alexa, Apple Siri, Google’s Now. This technology through these companies is becoming the foundation of consumer operations at work and home while robotics and smart automation are replacing basic skills, including autonomous cars, around the world.
2. Business Application Ecosystem
In the past, many IT departments tried to simplify their environment by choosing a single vendor i.e. implementing Oracle for most of their application portfolio. As niche solutions explode across the company, this environment becomes increasingly difficult to pursue. IT needs to cooperate with multiple vendors and various technologies, and everything is more interconnected and interoperable than in the past.IT departments must mix and match software and hardware solutions, and master ecosystem integration and data management as their key IT responsibilities.
API‘s (application programming interfaces) are robust architectures that are essential to providing modular, flexible dynamic solutions. The power of disruption lies in the general technical support capabilities that a company can provide. For example, Airbnb and Uber have disrupted traditional industries in the hotel booking and taxi industry yet they do not own taxis or own property.
3. Cloud-Based & Scalable Applications with Infinite Infrastructure
IT assets were mostly on-premise in the past. Today, a business must manage a hybrid environment that includes on-premise and cloud-based assets that are managed by numerous vendors. As more firms actively move functions to the cloud, cloud computing is becoming more important. In the next two years, it is expected that a third of all ERP systems in the world will migrate to the cloud.
While some businesses use cloud platforms to save money or ensure continuity, the majority of the advantages are agility and the flexibility to scale an environment on demand.
The pace of technological change in the previous several decades has been unprecedented, from the birth of the Internet to the arrival of big data and quantum computing. The wheels of the machine that is scientific discovery and invention continue to turn. Furthermore, the planet is undergoing some of the most significant transformations in its history. Moreover, no element of daily life, intellectual pursuits, or economic activities is unaffected.
The way we make, ship, market, and utilize items is always changing—a chain of procedures that covers a wide range of sectors including;
1. Digital Banking
With the rise of digital evolution, every industry has been impacted and thus redefined customer expectations. The digital disruption has seen businesses being transformed and making use of digital technologies. Rather than just putting up a mere website, leading companies use digitization from start to finish by doing product design, service, customer care, marketing, customer lifecycle, sales and online engagement.
Industry leaders not only use technology and processes to increase productivity and reduce costs, but they also use digital technology to develop new services, improve customer service, increase revenue, improve business models and products. Successful industries now have a comprehensive digital strategy to determine how to use digital technologies in all business aspects.
2. Internet of Things (IoT) Connecting Everything
According to the Harvard Business Review, IoT is a major transformative wave of innovation. The previous wave of change was mainframes and minicomputers, as well as the rise of the Internet. Internet-connected devices with embedded sensors that can provide actionable information will continue to grow at an exponential rate. These platforms will connect smart machines and smart everything in a collaborative ecosystem.
The Gartner Group refers to it as the “digital grid.” With the rapid growth of the installed base of IoT terminals, information technology (IT) must integrate IoT terminals, mobile devices, wearable devices, consumer equipment, transmission equipment, environmental equipment, etc. Information Technology integrated with IoT into business applications and analytics will provide meaningful insights into business processes and operations.
3. Mobile
Mobile devices remain a strong trend in the future and they are continually integrated into our daily work and personal life. Consumers want to be able to communicate and conduct business with companies through their smartphones, laptops and tablets and they’re wearable devices. The number of mobile devices so far exceeds the number of laptops and desktops that are currently used, and customers are more likely to access applications through smartphones or mobile devices than through PCs.
As mobile device sales increase, so has the variety and number of downloaded mobile applications. Businesses in all industries are using mobile devices to increase customer engagement, boost sales and build customer loyalty. This is done by the use of technology that supports a rapidly changing mobile workforce and customers. It is expected to see the mix of mobile devices, smart devices, and the Internet of Things across all industries and functions.
Job requirements are skills, attributes and experiences that employers expect to have among their hired candidates. Employers believe that these qualifications are essential to achieve satisfactory job performance. A prospective candidate should therefore focus on developing the skills that will enhance their employability.
Most job listings usually list the requirements a candidate needs to have to successfully secure a job. This may include specific skills, personal qualities, professional and educational certificates, work experience and other qualifications. These requirements serve to set expectations for employers and potential employees to ensure qualified individuals apply for positions.
It is important that candidates take the time to demonstrate to the hiring manager that their qualifications meet the requirements of the position. A candidate should carefully review the provided job requirements while applying for a job and reference their corresponding qualifications in their cover letter and resume. Employers can sometimes select candidates who have performed well in some key areas but who have not performed well in others.
Some of the things that employers look for are;
1. Skill
Employers seek both hard and soft skills in candidates. Hard skills are generally teachable and measurable abilities, such as the ability to use specific software programs, analyze data, code, implement social media campaigns, draw, etc. Soft skills usually refer to traits that are hard to quantify, such as critical thinking, active listening, creative problem-solving, and communicating effectively. Requirements that employers give usually involve both hard and soft skills. It is crucial for the candidate to develop both these skills.
2. Experience
Experience requirements typically refer to time in a specific field or role related to the position. The employer might also include working with a specific population or in a specific industry or employment sector.
3. Educational requirements
Some positions posted by the employer will require applicants to have a certain level of education. For example, the job may require a high school diploma, a college degree, or a graduate degree. In some cases, related work experience, known as equivalent experience, might be substituted for some or all of the educational requirements.
In conclusion, a candidate should not make assumptions that the skills they put in are the same as the ones recruiters emphasize on. Candidates should also gather a lot of information about the employer and use it to their advantage. Recruiters value technical skills but soft skills set successful graduates apart. This applies across sectors and is just as important in science and technology roles. While a candidate is trying to meet the requirements of today’s employer, they should also be open to failure and take it as a learning opportunity.
There is an upsurge of email scams, otherwise known as phishing scam where email conversations are intended to trick victims into making payments into a fraudulent bank account. At DewCIS, we take this opportunity to alert Internet users against ongoing email scammers who manipulate email addresses to deceive the victims into trusting the authenticity of the email and obtain sensitive information.
The scam starts by the fraudsters hijacking an otherwise very genuine email conversation between a supplier say of email address Frankline Njuguna <fnjuguna@tamshi.com> resident in Kenya and a genuine client John Doe <johndoe@shippers.com> resident in Spain for example.
Because scammers are motivated by money, they will lay in wait and only hijack the email conversation when a prospect of payment is real.
At this point, the fraudster will create parallel seemingly similar email addresses as follows; Frankline Njuguna <frjuguna@tamshi.dr> for the supplier and John Doe <johrdoe@shippers.com.dr for the customer.
With this communication hijacked, the fraudsters will be well positioned to act as both the supplier and the client sharing only that information they find appropriate such as fraudulent banking details to the unsuspecting client.
The supplier still believing that they are communicating with genuine client negotiates and shares quotations with the client, while the client still believing that they are dealing with the genuine supplier confidently makes payment to the fraudulent bank account. Immediately the money hits their account, the fraudsters immediately cease communication and disappear into thin air.
It is only when the client doesn’t receive the agreed services in time and either makes a call or reach out using another channel to the supplier that the parties realize that they have been defrauded.
This sort of trickery is not very sophisticated at all. The fraudsters are simply taking advantage of our “humanness”; that users do not often care to check the true email addresses of the people they are interacting with. Thus, the fraudsters simply modify the email address but retainsthe username of the source and or recipients, and therefore catching us unawares.
This is very easily done within existing domain registries. For example, it would cost someone just about $ 2 to register a shippers.com.drdomain and create an email address johrdoe@shippers.com.dr for use to defraud unsuspecting users.
From this fraud, it is clear that the fraudsters are possibly collaborating with an insider at either the client or the supplier business; the accomplice who steals the email trail from the mailbox and shares with the fraudsters. Since this is the point of entry and therefore the weakest link, there is need to limit transactional email communications such as those with bank account details to only the necessary staff.
The other very important check is to encourage communication between the customer and the supplier using alternative channels including telephone, WhatsApp etc particularly as a follow-up to ensure the appropriate banking details are shared.
Another practical way of preventing email fraud particularly on sensitive or confidential information is to wrap the content of your emails encrypted with a password that is time bound to expire within a specified time period. To ensure that none other than the intended recipient accesses the message, the passwords ought to be sent via a different channel such as via a phone call or SMS.
While it takes practice to pay attention to domain email addresses of users, we are encourages to always be vigilant so that one can spot the tweaks and tiny differences in email addresses and catch the fraudsters on their tracks and avoid losses.
The stark reality of the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the cracks in health care systems to adequately provide support to the affected patients.
We realize the importance of ventilators as critical for the care of people with lung failure, one of the complications suffered by patients with severe COVID-19 attacks. The scarcity of ventilators is worsened by the fact that hospitals have to reserve ventilators to treat non-COVID-19 cases such as heart attacks, strokes and other emergency cases even at this time of the pandemic.
While we appreciate that the time at hand is not adequate to develop a fully compliant ventilator based on the government specifications, we believe that developing a low-cost portable automatic respirator with minimum features available to Wanjiku would save lives. Among other features, the machine should have invasive and non-invasive feature, and supports 400-700 mL tidal volume, with a continuous working capability for 2-3 days. Furthermore, any innovation must be attentive to the needs of the larger group of the population as opposed to the few.
To tackle this imminent shortage, at DewCIS we envision a simply home-made ventilator, a mechanical breathing device that is able to blow both air and oxygen into the lungs. Rather than reinventing the wheel, our innovation is to reuse locally available parts to assemble a ventilator. Our vision is to empower every homestead to own a ventilator at minimum cost, using a simple one-page instruction DIY manual.
The device is made of an automatic motor pulling a tough string pulley tied to the board, which then squeezes the bag-valve mask, often called ‘Ambu Bag,’ used for resuscitation in emergency situations, to push oxygen and air into the lungs.
Assembling “Wanjiku” Ventilator, I Prototype
The device can be assembled from locally readily reusable parts, and consumer off-the-shelf components
Motor & Motor ControllerA basic direct current (dc) motor with 7 kg torque is preferable. A car wiper motor would do. The motor controller gives the various modes of operating the motor.
Tough string1-meter long tough nylon string, easily available from a used clothe
Bag-valve maskoften called ‘Ambu Bag,’ used for resuscitation in emergency situations, available at local chemists
12V direct current (dc) supplya car battery would do, an old computer power supply module or an adaptor for the 240V alternating current (ac) supply
Arduino MicrocontrollerSupports programmable features of the apparatus.
Other parts including casing can be crafted at home or from local jua kali kiosks.
This Wanjiku ventilator is portable, and therefore adoptable in villages and other low cost residential areas without reliable power supply, and is inexpensive enough to scale up in bulk production. In dire situations, an ingenious 4-way valve splitter can be used to serve upto 4 different patients.
Future models & improvements
Craft a more durable base and casing to offer sturdy mechanism.
Introduce gears and pulleys for a smooth air flow and eliminate jerking.
Program the motor motions to allow supports of a range of tidal volumes.
Include user interface to allows selection of preset inspiratory:expiratory ratios.
We are creatures of habit in what we eat, where we work, what TV shows we watch, when we work out etc. Right now with Covid-19, all those habits have been shoved out of the window. The extensive social distancing policies put in place to limit the spread of COVID-19 means most people will have to spend much, if not all, their time at home.
With new terms as “keeping social distance “, gyms have closed their doors, but does that mean we stop exercising and keeping fit? Remember one of the things you should do to fight this Covid-19 monster is to be physically fit. So, as we still keeping our social distance and quarantine ourselves, we can still exercise and maintain a healthy routine. Here are a few exercise routines you can embrace and practice.
Take a walk
There are a million and one benefits of walking, which have, long been documented, this benefits include reducing the risk of heart disease, strengthening bones and muscles, and improving your mood according to medical gurus. Walking just for 30 minutes a day can make a difference.
There is a question of how to take a walk while still maintaining social distance? Well that should not worry you if you follow simple instructions of keeping a six-foot distance between yourself and others and also wearing a mask as you take the walk.
Stairs climbing
Using the stairs is an extremely time-efficient way to maintain fitness, and of course it’s free. If you live in an apartment with lifts, how about avoiding that uncomfortable lift encounters with other self-isolating neighbors by using the staircase for any necessary outdoor journeys. While at it, take care to avoid much contact with handrails.
Online exercise Classes.
Take advantage of the wealth of online exercise classes. Many of these are free and can be found on YouTube. With the quarantine and social distance directives, we can create our own gym through YouTube, with over a thousands of exercise videos available online. Since so many of us have smart TVs these days, one great way to build a library is to save a number of workouts into playlists you can easily stream onto the sets around your house.
Make sure to gather workout clips that cover the whole body: upper body workouts, lower body, abs, butt, cardio, strength, yoga, balance, flexibility and stretching.
Dancing
Dancing is an excellent way to protect your heart lowering anxiety, reduce stress, and increase your flexibility amongst other many benefits.
Dancing also has established mental health benefits to help us cope with the coronavirus-imposed solitude. We can all agree staying at home weather working or not with this pandemic can easily stress and break anyone, even the strongest.
That said we can use this isolation time and experience the magic of music whether its reggae, Rock, local music which ever floats your boat, it will not be difficult to turn up the volume of your stereo a little higher and turn your lounge or kitchen into a little dance hall and lets dance the COVID-19 blues away at home like nobody’s watching.
Yoga
With the Covid -19 crisis almost every one has been left worried, stressed and lonely with no routine. There is no better time to start practicing yoga.
It can be practiced in the comfort of your own home, at any level, regardless of how silly you may feel.
Doing Yoga on a regular basis can be extremely beneficial for your flexibility, help you boost your strength and improve your overall fitness.
With a focus on self-care, deep breathing, meditation and exercise, yoga has proven benefits for both mind and body.
Setting aside time for yoga also provides routine in your day and gives your mind a break while working from home.
Total beginners or experts could follow YouTube Videos, or purchase a book of yoga poses to work from.
.. We do this because Music has the power to quench mental anguish; is a form of art, which is universally accessible and has instantaneous effects on our minds.
One time, when eavesdropping on a conversation of two colleagues discussing why he listens to Reggae, I found his response reaffirming at the least “ that Reggae cleanses from within and helps my mind achieve new potential, unlocking unlimited resilience when writing software codes.” His view was attested to by the ancient Hindus who believed that suffering caused by man’s uncontrolled thinking could be soothed by music therapy.
Expressive musical activities, often visible amongst some colleagues in the office singing along to streaming music, enhance the positive self-image and improve coping skills. Visibly so, because singing is a unique exercise calling upon our concentration, meditation, and breathing exercises all taking place unconsciously and simultaneously.
Nevertheless, listening to music of different genres and musical patterns affect the brain in different ways, firing disparate rush of emotions and behavioural patterns. Study has shown that listening to classical music can expand ones spatial reasoning, while listening to jazz helps with stress management. Traditional rhythmic music including chants, stringed instruments, drums and horns are very relaxing, appealing to our spirituality when played moderately loud.
Heavy metal music is great for reducing negative emotions and regulating anger and depression, especially among teens seeking validation for belonging. Avid listeners of rock music on the other hand, believe in its ability to enhance creative thinking. Listening to the sounds of nature has been shown enhance cognitive function and concentration; it is no wonder writers take time away into nature to craft their stories.
When all is said and done, music needs a mind to appreciate it. The material essence of music is found in its melody, harmony, rhythm, and dynamics. Melody gives music soul, while rhythm blends the expression of harmony and dynamics with the tempo of the beat to create a recognizable pattern.
Take a shot for those who love the sounds of the beat and be blown away by the dancing waves generated using the new revolutionary ambisonics recording technology sampled here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwNDNuC5XsQ.
But again, for those who love quiet, continue listening to the sounds of silence like the beats of your heart punctuated with the clatter of the keyboard produced by your dancing fingers. It’s all music!
