QPORIT

FACEBOOK, in collaboration with about two dozen other big companies, has announced a new financial system, to be launched in 2020, which will upend the global financial system if it succeeds.

FACEBOOK has proven that it understands how to provide inexpensive (or free), convenient, and useful services to consumers and businesses, and how to make a lot of money doing that.  In building a social media service, they succeeded where many others (for example, My Space and before that Six Degrees, and numerous others)  seemed to be getting traction, then stumbled before they reached major global scale. 



FACEBOOK has also gotten into trouble for not managing seriously harmful content that is damaging to individuals, groups, and democracy. (And it is currently facing greater and greater scrutiny from regulators.) Much, but not necessarily all the harm is related to the gathering and use of customer data (the "surveillance economy"), algorithms which promote harmful content, and a financial model that tends to reward, not discourage, many dangerous practices.

It is not easy for a company -- controlled by a single, American individual -- to handle dangerous content created by billions of users around the world, in a variety of languages. Have they "gotten ahead of their skis"? 

FACEBOOK, as recently as 2018, was stressing its mission as connecting people. (In 2019 it started promoting its efforts to "fix" the platform, including efforts to protect user privacy.) They have previously embarked on projects designed to connect more people to the Internet (and thus, perhaps, to FACEBOOK) all over the world. This project will connect people financially.

The new system will use a new cryptocurrency for transactions, a blockchain recording (or ledger) system, a consortium of 100 or more companies to control it, a pool of at least $1 Billion dollars to stabilize the currency, "wallets" to facilitate transactions with the general simplicity of a simple smartphone app; and regulatory oversight.

 Some of the benefits of this new system could be

>> Convenient international financial transactions;
>> Cheaper international transactions;
>> Access to a financial system for many people, poor, remotely located, or otherwise now isolated from the existing financial system, including many women in many countries;
>> An easy and universal method of payments and person to person money transfers, locally or internationally;
>> A more stable currency than exists in some countries with financial problems such as hyperinflation.

Understanding the economics, mathematics, computer science, political issues and environmental issues of a system like this is currently in its infancy.

("Wikipedia: On 18 August 2008, the domain name bitcoin.org was registered. Later that year, on 31 October, a link to a paper authored by Satoshi Nakamoto titled Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System was posted to a cryptography mailing list.)

("Wikipedia: Satoshi Nakamoto is the name used by the unknown person or persons who developed bitcoin, authored the bitcoin white paper, and created and deployed bitcoin's original reference implementation. As part of the implementation, they also devised the first blockchain database.")

Among the issues that have been reported as arising in experiments with Crytocurrencies and blockchain ledgers in the past few years, since the paper of "Satoshi Nakamoto" in 2008 are:

>> Volatility in the value of the currency;
>> The lack of privacy in the blockchain has made holders of large amounts of value vulnerable to crime or threats of crime;
>> The privacy of the blockchain has facilitated undesirable transactions, such as money laundering, and anonymous payments for criminal and terrorist activities.
>> (Of course, the simultaneous, contradictory existence of anonymity and privacy violations and "applications thereof" has made blockchains a superstar in fiction.)
>> Environmental issues, as the processing necessary for a blockchain, as the chain of blocks becomes large, requires serious computing power, and serious electrical power to support the computers.

Because FACEBOOK, together with the other companies in the consortium, (as of now, most or all based in the US), is bigger than many countries, there will be international political ramifications to creating this project, building it, and then running it.  With FACEBOOK in competition with GOOGLE/ALPHABET, APPLE, and even with MICROSOFT and IBM, as well as major Chinese companies, and the interests of Europe, Russia, and other countries and regions, it remains to be seen if this will spur global, cross-company cooperation, competition, or conflict.


Here are some articles discussing the announcement of the project, along with some of the foundational white papers.

Martin Scorcese has a new film, "Rolling Thunder Review - A Bob Dylan Story" on the legendary tour by Bob Dylan (now -- but not yet then -- the worlds only folk/pop/rock/ musical legend to win a Nobel Prize for literature). 

Here is Scorcese talking about the film:
https://twitter.com/i/status/1138870885572440064

Here is a review and discussion of the film from the RogerEbert website:
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/rolling-thunder-revue-a-bob-dylan-story-by-martin-scorsese-2019

Rolling Thunder Review - A Bob Dylan Story on IMDB
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9577852/


Jennifer Aniston and Adam Sandler have a new "Murder Mystery" coming to NETFLIX tomorrow: June 14.  The trailer is funny and very promising. Beware: Watching the trailer may give away too many jokes.

Here's the trailer for Murder Mystery
https://youtu.be/5YEVQDr2f3Q

Murder Mystery on IMDB
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1618434

Labels: Adam Sandler, Bob Dylan, Comedy, Jennifer Aniston, Martin Scorcese, MURDER MYSTERY, mystery, NETFLIX, ROLLING THUNDER

What editor do you use to process VR videos?

I use Adobe Premiere Pro (PP).

(+) It is super powerful and super versatile with special VR tools. And it keeps getting more and more VR friendly.

(+) PP will automatically add the necessary meta-data for YouTube and other VR hosting sites (when you export the video "correctly").

(-) Unfortunately, as of today, it does not stitch, and (except for not stitching) it is so powerful and versatile that most of what it does is irrelevant (it was built for old-fashioned 2D framed video); and, for me, it's confusing (and often counter-intuitive and very particular about your workflow).

(+) I find that for the specific tasks I need, there are YouTube videos that explain just what I need.

There are surprisingly few books about PP, and none perfect for the VR editor. One book that seems helpful is "The Cool Stuff in Premiere Pro". Unfortunately, it is 1221 pages long (yes, PP has many features); it is also slightly out of date (even though it has a 2017 copyright), as PP keeps improving its VR features.


There is also a "user guide" from PP at
https://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-pro/user-guide.html ;

a "reference manual" pdf at
https://helpx.adobe.com/pdf/premiere_pro_reference.pdf ;

and a guide to VR editing at
https://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-pro/using/VRSupport.html .



There is no perfect editor for VR. Ideal features would include an intuitive UI plus (simple! or automatic!!)...

(a) stitching, stabilizing
(b) balancing light from different cameras
(c) ambisonic sound; syncing sound & video
(d) easy importing to easy layers
(f) tracking of items; removal of items
(g) color correction, masking
(h) 3D spatial titles, captions, lettering, with animations
(i) ability to import, process, and export large (for the future - 32 K per eye; 90 fps, high bitrate, feature length) videos
(j) ability to handle various formats (360, 180, anything in-between; 3D - up/down, side by side; equirectangular, cubemap; mp4, webm; h264, h265; etc)
(k) ability to handle volumetric video
(l) and of course basic editing features of cutting and joining clips
(m) easy to view and edit from within a VR HMD
(n) etc

Labels: "The Cool Stuff in Premiere Pro", Adobe, editing, editing videos, Premiere Pro, VIDEOS, Virtual Reality, VR, VR videos, YOUTUBE

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/build

At the keynote for Microsoft Build, Satya Nadella introduced an impressive, staggering/mind-twisting/bewildering array of new, developing, and future products and services. The talk was primarily targeted at enterprise developers (in a number of ways) rather than at consumers (in contrast to most keynotes from Facebook, Google, and Apple).

Some of the ways in which enterprise developers were the target of the talk are:
1 - the products/services announced were largely for enterprise developers;
2 - the language used was full of words, names, and acronyms that would only be familiar to developers involved in that specific area;
3 - the examples and demos were drawn from enterprise applications.

The amount of technology described was staggering, and very impressive... if your goal is developing enterprise software, and you have enterprise support for training and team development, and you are targeting supported devices.  

The learning curve to just understand what Microsoft has available and how to use it is very steep. It is not clear if the training required is conveniently and generally available.  I suspect that only enterprise customers with support from Microsoft can easily get comprehensive advanced support.

However, Microsoft has always been exceptionally supportive of individual developers who look into any particular area (as opposed to comprehensive training). As an example, in a program before the keynote, student developers presented some amazing work. A project, EasyGlucose, which was awarded a grand prize in a competition (Imagine Cup) for student developers, used smart phones, Azure AI, and other tools, to monitor Glucose levels by observing changes in the eye; it is a tour-de-force of both research and technological development, by an independent student developer. -- Project presentations, by 3 finalist teams of student developers, are available from 4:35 of the Build keynote video, currently, at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbpjLchrYgw

Assuming the keynote was directed at developers rather than consumers, the faults in its production may be somewhat excused. However, objectively, although the technology seems terrific, reviewing both the script and the presentation of today's keynote, the quality was poor.  The script -- even, I think, for many developers -- used too many undefined and unexplained words, technical terms, and acronyms, It also did not provide clear explanations about either how to use much of the technology, or what its likely usage was.  It was too much information that went by too fast; nor did it provide a clear path to researching the information.  Although there were some canned examples of showing different pieces working together, it did not really tie all the different pieces together, neither  explaining how the pieces all worked together, nor how the different pieces were different. (For example, what is the difference between Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Microsoft 365?)

The presentation seemed insufficiently rehearsed. Everyone seemed to be reading their words, not telling us. (Of course, a teleprompter is ubiquitous; the trick is that viewers should not be aware of that.) Some people giving sidebar presentations seemed to be surprised by being on camera; others seemed to be over-prepared (as when there was a cheering section as the camera moved in to the speaker). Worst of all, the event opened with what seemed likely to be a spectacular Hololens 2 live demo... that, embarrassingly, did not work at all, getting the keynote off to a sour note. (As one of the unfortunate speakers noted, "doing a live demo is hard".  A bit of sympathy here. A bunch of super-star space tech guys were, with great fanfare, announcing a project to capture asteroids in space and bring them back to the vicinity of Earth and then mine the contents. Their highly promoted live stream did not work at all. Rocket science is easy; live streaming is hard.)

In the course of this conference, Microsoft will be discussing -- in additional keynotes, and many special technical sessions -- an important and impressive array of improvements in cloud and edge services, web browsing, AI, collaboration, and co-ordination between different products (eg Azure & Hololens 2). Many of these sessions, even if not live streamed, will be recorded and made available for video on demand.

More specific, and more leisurely, descriptions of particular products and services are likely to be available in these videos.

I hope that at least one session and/or some serious effort will be devoted to general information, and technical education for consumers, indie-developers, enterprise non-technical management, and even enterprise developers. I hope for transmedia education: video, online papers, books, live public conference presentations, and more.  

The array of products and services is growing and developing so fast, it will not help anyone (and will possibly hurt many) if the information about technology does not grow as fast or faster than the technology itself.

Labels: 365, Azure, Build, cloud, collaboration, education, Hololens, Microsoft, Microsoft Build, presentation, training

MICROSOFT BUILD
MAY 6 - MAY 8
Keynote MON - May 6, 2019 8:30 Pacific 11:30 EST.
The Keynote will be live streamed.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/build



GOOGLE I/O
MAY 7 - MAY 9
Keynote TUE -  MAY 7 10:00 Pacific 1:00 EST.
The Keynote will be live streamed.

https://events.google.com/io/schedule/events

Labels: Alphabet, Build, Google, GOOGLE I/O, Microsoft, Microsoft Build

The Parallax View, one of the all-time great conspiracy films, will play on MAX tonight at 8 PM (EST).

It is a chilling movie.

On one of my most memorable film experiences, after a few weeks of screening really boring films, I saw The Parallax View and Chinatown, back-to-back on the same day.

The Parallax View stars Warren Beatty, directed by Alan Pakula, from a script by David Giler and Lorenzo Semple Jr (with - according to IMDB - uncredited assistance by Robert Towne), from a novel by Loren Singer. 

Warren Beatty is well known for (among many others) Bonnie & Clyde, Reds, Shampoo, and McCabe & Mrs Miller.

Paula Prentiss, Hume Cronyn and William Daniels also appear in the film.

Alan Pakula also directed Klute, with Jane Fonda, and All The President's Men, with Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford.




THE PARALLAX VIEW - IMDB
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071970/fullcredits

THE PARALLAX VIEW - WIKIPEDIA
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Parallax_View

WARREN BEATTY - IMDB
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000886/

(If you miss it tonight, or don't have MAX, The Parallax View is available for rental on Amazon Prime Video.)

Labels: Alan Pakula, Chinatown, THE PARALLAX VIEW, Warren Beatty

Here are the 



for the horses running in the Kentucky Derby, on NBC, this Saturday, May 4 (the first Saturday in May!) 

Notable items to keep in mind, and the most likely horses to run well, are indicated with a asterisk(*).

I've been watching the Kentucky Derby just about every year for decades, and almost always with a Mint Julep!

I visited Belmont Park a few years ago. 

Perhaps the most striking thing about watching actual races live, rather than on TV, in movies, or in photos, was how hard the horses work while running the race.  On TV they look graceful.  Live, they are straining, immensely powerful, muscular, determined (beautiful , graceful) animals. 



Finale of the 2014 Belmont Stakes
Photo by Eric Roffman - QPORIT
In the NYT today (race day!) Joe Drape comments on recent tragedies in horse racing, especially at Santa Anita, which has had to suspend all racing. He recommends we all wish, most of all, for all the horses running today, and always, "Let's just get'em all around there safely."


RESULTS!

Maximum Security finishes first. But earlier, spooked by the crowd, it shifted lanes, and was DISQUALIFIED by the stewards. Longshot (65-1!) COUNTRY HOUSE wins the Kentucky Derby! >> 

(While the disqualification result was controversial, it did look from the video footage as if a disaster -- with multiple horses tripping over other when Maximum Security shifted into a lane that was not clear -- was avoided mostly by sheer luck, plus quick action by all the jockeys. Let's be glad they all did get around there safely!)

1- Country House 65-1 $132.40
2- Code of Honor 14-1
3- Tacitus 5-1

4- Improbable
5- Game Winner
6- Master Fencer
7- War of Will
8- Plus Que Parfait
9- Win Win Win
10- Cutting Humor
11- By My Standards
12- Vekoma
13- Bodexpress
14- Tax
15- Roadster
16- Long Range Toddy
17- Spinoff
18- Gray Magician

19- Haikal - scratched
20- Omaha Beach - scratched
21- Maximum Security - 1st by 1 3/4 lengths, disqualified

Labels: Churchill Downs, horse races, horses, Kentucky Derby, Mint Julep, racing, Triple Crown

Labels: All My Sons, Burn This, Hadestown, James Corden, Oklahoma, The Ferryman, TONY AWARDS. CBS