The Internet of Things has hundreds of applications, ranging from next-gen consumer electronics to high-calibre industrial devices. SIoTD are networks of connected IoT devices that work together for an integrated purpose. An IoT networking system's key feature is its architecture, which includes layers of devices, components and network processes.

Systems of IoT devices (SIoTD)

<ul><li>Many consumers today have their own personal IoT networking system, including a smart speaker, smartphone, smartwatch, smart appliances, and potentially even their smart car. These devices can communicate with consumers and each other in several ways, but they all serve one purpose of simplifying and automating the consumer's life.</li><li>A manufacturing facility that uses IoT in networking might adopt technologies like IoT quality-control sensors, IoT sensors for manufacturing robots, smart inventory monitors and smart warehousing equipment.</li></ul>

Examples of IoT networking systems

Sensors in IoT devices inform the device about some condition, such as temperature, and forward that information to a controller. The controller tests the information from the sensor against a collection of possible responses, identifies the appropriate response and then tells the device's actuators to do something, such as send an electrical signal to turn off an appliance.  The device is connected to the network, most often the internet, and communicates and collects data from other devices. There could be hundreds of sensor-controller-actuator processes in a large system of IoT devices.

Layers of IoT in Networking

There are three main IoT network architectures:<ol><li>Three-layer consists of a perception layer, an application layer, and a network layer. A simple way to think of this architecture is like the human body. The perception layer is like the senses, such as touch, smell and sight. The information the body senses gets sent to the brain, the network, where the information is processed and turned into an action, the application layer.</li><li>Four-layer adds a specific data processing layer and often act as a security layer.</li><li>Five-layer adds a processing layer as well as a business layer.</li></ol>

Types of architectures

Applications range from consumer electronics to expansive supply-chain programs. One great use case for SIoTDs is supply-chain monitoring and management. For example, smart warehouses. Warehouse managers can use IoT devices to monitor their inventory levels, which can inform them which inventory items are low or expiring soon.

Applications for complex SIoTDs

The rise of IoT in networking is sparking key innovations in the field, including complex systems of Internet of Things devices (SIoTD). This guide will cover the basics of this emerging concept and its applications.

technologyandthefuture

Technology & The Future

The Complex Systems of Internet of Things Devices Explained

The more we try to do something, the worse we become at it. Aldous Huxley called this the law of reversed effort. He wrote, “The harder we try with the conscious will to do something, the less we shall succeed." “Proficiency and the results of proficiency come only to those who have learned the paradoxical art of doing and not doing, or combining relaxation with activity, of letting go as a person in order that the immanent and transcendent unknown quantity may take hold.”

The Law of Reversed Effort

The law of reversed effort stems from an old idea found in Daoism, Wu Wei, which is to step away from all the busyness and just let things happen. There is wisdom in knowing our limits. It's not about being lazy or an excuse for a Netflix binge. It is the opposite. Wu Wei is to appreciate, accept and give in to the pull of forces that are greater than us. Wu Wei is the stick riding the current. It's to surrender and recognise that some things need patience and space.

Wu Wei

Writing: Writers find a blank page terrifying. If you have been told to write something on a deadline, the mind often goes blank. It's better to write ideas down in a notebook as they come so you don't forget them. Technical skills: When you learn a new sport or skill, you have to learn the technique. As you go through the motions, you'll get to a point when overthinking is detrimental.

Practical applications

Understand yourself and those around you.

psychology

Psychology

scienceandnature

Science & Nature

The law of reversed effort

<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">During the pandemic, a whopping 23 million American households adopted a dog or cat.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Foods, treats, and chews can cost owners hundreds of dollars a month, even though they're often made with "byproducts" of the meat and poultry industry.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">These costs are hitting more people than ever before.</li></ul>

Expensive Dog Food

<ul><li>Like infant formula, kibble needs to have the right combination of fat, protein, fiber, and nutrients to keep a pet healthy, even if it eats nothing else.</li><li>It also needs to last for weeks or months without rotting, which requires additional ingredients.</li><li>The goal is to make kibble that's just gamey enough to make animals love it but not so bad that people won't buy it.</li><li>Companies run sniff tests with pets to find the most palatable kibble.</li></ul>

The Trouble With Kibbles

The pet food industry is built on branding. Marketing obscures the fact that there are just a handful of major corporations behind the majority of food brands.A lack of competition within an industry can be bad for the consumer and bad for prices.

Companies Charging More Because They Can

<ul><li>One needs to see more research on health outcomes for popular pet brands. </li><li>Popular diets for dogs like "grain-free," which tend to be pricier, may not be better either.</li><li>Feeding table scraps to your pup on occasion is not a bad idea.</li></ul>

Expensive Does Not Mean Better

Bully sticks, kibble, and treats aren’t cheap. What are you paying for?

marketingandsales

Marketing & Sales

Why pet food is so doggone expensive

Among the many changes brought about by the pandemic is the widespread use of QR codes: graphical representations of digital data that can be printed and later scanned by a smartphone or other device.QR codes have a wide range of uses that help people avoid contact with objects and close interactions with other people, including for sharing restaurant menus, email list sign-ups, car and home sales information, and checking in and out of medical and professional appointments.

The QR Code

While it is easy for people to read Arabic numerals, it is hard for a computer. Bar codes encode alphanumeric data as a series of black and white lines of various widths. At the store, bar codes record the set of numbers that specify a product’s ID. Critically, data stored in bar codes is redundant. Even if part of the bar code is destroyed or obscured, it is still possible for a device to read the product ID.

Before QR Codes, We Had Bar Codes

QR codes are designed to be scanned using a camera, such as those found on your smartphone. QR code scanning is built into many camera apps for Android and iOS. QR codes are most often used to store web links; however, they can store arbitrary data, such as text or images.When you scan a QR code, the QR reader in your phone’s camera deciphers the code, and the resulting information triggers an action on your phone. If the QR code holds a URL, your phone will present you with the URL. Tap it, and your phone’s default browser will open the webpage.

How QR Codes Work

Like barcodes, QR codes are designed with data redundancy. Even if as much as 30% of the QR code is destroyed or difficult to read, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-a-qr-code?op=1">the data can still be recovered</a>. In fact, logos are not actually part of the QR code; they cover up some of the QR code’s data. However, due to the QR code’s redundancy, the data represented by these missing dots can be recovered by looking at the remaining visible dots.

Data Redundancy Built-In

QR codes are not inherently dangerous. They are simply a way to store data. However, just as it can be hazardous to click links in emails, visiting URLs stored in QR codes can also be risky in several ways.The QR code’s URL can take you to a phishing website that tries to trick you into entering your username or password for another website. The URL could take you to a legitimate website and trick that website into doing something harmful, such as giving an attacker access to your account

Carrier Of Dangerous Links

It is critical that when you open a link in a QR code, you ensure that the URL is safe and comes from a trusted source.  There is also a slight chance that the app used to scan the QR code could contain a vulnerability that allows malicious QR codes to take over your device. This attack would succeed by just scanning the QR code, even if you don’t click the link stored in it. To avoid this threat, you should use trusted apps provided by the device manufacturer to scan QR codes and avoid downloading custom QR code apps.

Stay Safe

While QR codes hold significantly more data than bar codes, they are also more prone to phishing attacks.


education

Learning & Education

How QR codes work—and what makes them dangerous

Marc asks the following questions to better understand claims about the negative effects of technology:<ul><li>Is this the first generation of technology for which they have made those claims?</li><li>Were the claims different or were they the same? If they are, how are they playing out differently this time?</li></ul>The key facet is social change (reordering of the power and status structure), it’s not about technological change. Power and status are the core battles.All the people who have achieved positions of power and authority due to prior generations of technology are now threatened by new technology.

Social Reaction to new technology

It’s basically a battle between top-down hierarchy and lateral network building, The way that power has been exercised in our society through these decades of mass systems has been about people in conference rooms arguing with each other over control of these mass mechanisms. They argue over ad campaigns, new car models, presidential nominees, etc.With the arrival of the internet, anybody could build anything they want, put out any information and organize any movement; it was fundamentally disruptive. It’s lateral peer-to-peer, and there is no central node

How Does Technology Impact Social Hierarchies?

The new kids on the block are educated on the internet, their depth of technological, financial, and cultural knowledge is very broad. They are idealists and have an intuitive sense of how new technologies could be harnessed to improve the world, and they actually have the power to do it.There is a continuous movement of new people, ideas, and new ways of doing things, and they have systems that will support them. In every sector, we are going to see better ways of doing things (organizing economy, productive activity, job opportunities, education)

The arrival of new kids of different backgrounds with wild ideas and advanced skillsets

Based on 1984, a novel by George Orwell technology is used to control the masses. Technology with the potential to disrupt hierarchical control instead ends up enabling top-down control.Analyzing Martin Gurri’s scenario of nihilism Marc says Peer-to-peer networks are good at destroying but they are not necessarily good at building.The internet is very good at tearing down hierarchies but it has not yet proven its ability to build governance systems.Can you have a functioning democracy if what you have are people arguing with each other and never forming instruments of state power?

Pessimistic Prediction for the Next Ten Years

Learning from experience is natural, but you have to understand the domain in which you are operatingIn a deterministic domain (e.g. standardized testing) not getting a 100% and asking what you did wrong makes sense; you didn’t study enough, read the material, etc.But this doesn’t work for probabilistic domains; because your goal should not be going for 100%.In the probabilistic domain, some percentage is always going to fail by definitionBy trying to explain something that is fundamentally based on randomness, you are only deluding yourself and making your life miserable

How to Extract the Right Lesson From an Experience?

I no longer think there are any qualified people starting tech companies that have bad ideas, it’s just a question of timing and execution.

What every venture capital capitalist of all time has in common is that each of them missed almost all of the great deals of their generation.The bad news is that you are going to make that kind of mistake. But the good news is that you don’t have to score 100%; you can take chances. Success or failure is not at the unit of an individual investment. It’s at the level of a portfolio, and these portfolio effects are everywhere; level of a fund, at the level of a strategy, etc

How Probabilistic Thinking Can Help You Make Great Decisions

If the strategy involves 10 bets, you don’t get evaluated based on any particular bet, or even an average, yet the total performance of the basket investmentIf one of those bets accounts for 99% of the profit of the basket then that is a perfectly fine outcome. You can make risky bets in a way where you know you are not going to lose everything if you don’t score 100%This is the nature of all probabilistic domains.All creative artists live in this probabilistic world where they can do that.

Strategy before decision

In Marc’s view, the education system is completely unfixableIt’s an old system that has been on autopilot for 100 years and doesn’t fit anywhere anymore. It suffered the same fate as every institution that goes across multiple generations.He doesn’t believe in school reforms, he thinks it’s a waste of time and money trying to reform a system that has no intention of being reformed. Reform is impossible, there is only one solution: build the new system

The Problem With the Education System

You can “borrow” mental models of people you admire; Ask yourself, what would they say in the face of any particular challenge you are trying to solve.Read about their thought process if they have talked about or written about it.Ellon Musk uses first principles thinking; we all assume too many thingsStrip the things down to basics and start the logical thought process from beginningGo deeper into the idea and build your way back upPeter Thiel’s core modelBased on René Girard’s teachings about mimetic behaviors (people copying behavior between each other)

Mental Models of Highly Successful People (Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, Andy Grove, and Others)

Stress test your ideas through a lens that’s not just your preconceptions.

The WEIRDest People in the World by Joseph HenrichThe Machiavellians: Defenders of Freedom by James BurnhamThe best book on politics of the 20th centuryThe Revolt of The Public and the Crisis of Authority in the New Millennium by Martin GurriThe Ancient City by Numa Denis Fustel De CoulangesNot very popular, but it had a big impact on Marc’s thinking

Books which Marc keeps coming back to

Marc Andreessen “reads backward” to reveal the patterns of societal reaction to new technology, optimistic and pessimistic scenarios for the future of the Internet, and why he thinks the education system is unfixable

 Silicon Valley icon Marc Andreessen explores investing, decision making, and the art of solving unsolvable problems.    In this discussion, Andreessen reveals why the Internet has become the conduit for some people to disrupt traditional power structures and for others to enforce them, optimistic and pessimistic scenarios for the future of the Internet, assessing judgment, and the book he turns to for insight.    Andreessen is a co-founder and general partner at the venture-capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, and has invested in companies such as Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter and Skype, among others. He co-created the highly influential Mosaic internet browser and co-founded Netscape, and has been named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time.    The books recommended by Marc Andreessen in this episode are:   The WEIRDest People in the World, by Joseph Henrich The Machiavellians: Defenders of Freedom, by James Burnham The Revolt of The Public and the Crisis of Authority in the New Millennium, by Martin Gurri The Ancient City, by Numa Denis Fustel De Coulanges     -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/ Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/ Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

problemsolving

Problem Solving

podcasts

Podcasts

artsandculture

Society, Arts & Culture

Marc Andreessen: Interview with an Icon

We also see some negative, often unintended consequences of these technologies. They go from the rise of fake news and algorithms that favour the incendiary and divisive over the factual, to major privacy breaches and AI models that discriminate against minority groups or even cost human lives.
AI is a powerful tool, and it’s never been more important for C-suite executives to understand both how to leverage it for growth and innovation, and how to do so responsibly and ethically.

How To Responsibly Adopt Artificial Intelligence

Leaders need an understanding of the long-term impact – both positive and negative – of the algorithms they build and deploy.
It’s by no means a charted path; success is as much about asking the right questions, keeping an open mind and being aware of the key issues at stake, as it is about finding the “right” answers.

The Long Term Impact Of A.I.

The World Economic Forum, with supporting research from INSEAD’s Hoffmann Global Institute for Business and Society, has created a guide for C-suite executives who are committed to adopting AI technologies effectively and responsibly. 
This guide takes the form of questions that executives should be asking themselves as they build their AI capabilities. It also offers some possible answers to these complex issues.

The Standard Guidelines

It’s tempting for executives to believe that AI will magically deliver new revenue streams or efficiency gains, but the truth is that AI initiatives ought to undergo the same rigorous business planning as any other project.An AI initiative should, first and foremost, align with the organisation’s key strategic goals and directly contribute to moving the KPIs that buttress this strategy.

Building An Effective A.I. Capability

The first rule of machine learning: Start without machine learning.Executives must “know the why” for AI initiatives. An iterative development that starts with simple, explainable models is recommended. Investments in more complex solutions that may deliver marginal accuracy gains but are much harder to interpret or deploy at scale should be avoided.The best rules of thumb to mine business value from AI are: “Don’t get caught in the hype” and “Start simple and test value.”

A Few Thumb Rules

It is helpful for executives to possess a broad understanding of the key stages of an AI initiative and the technical risks at each of these stages. For instance, executives broadly underestimate the amount of data cleansing and preparation that are required for building viable algorithms. Data scientists, on the other hand, are likely to focus on building the most accurate model possible using the latest techniques, without understanding the business context and many trade-offs.

Understanding The Key Stages

The most successful AI initiatives are close collaborations between data talent, business stakeholders and sponsors, engineers as well as end users who are available to test the solution and send feedback. 
Building the right team and upskilling the organisation to enable this kind of collaboration is essential for success.

KPIs Of Leaders For A.I.

Running an effective AI capability, however, is more than simply leveraging these technologies to realise EBIT and market share gains. Now more than ever, executives must have a keen understanding of the new business risks involved in developing algorithms. 
They must ensure that their organisations are pro-actively mitigating them and that they comply with upcoming regulations.

The Risks Of A.I.

AI also raises questions of accountability. Who is responsible:<ul><li>When a driverless car crashes?</li><li>In a lawsuit claiming unfair hiring informed by AI algorithms?</li><li>When the wrong medical treatment is prescribed because an AI diagnostic system contained errors?</li><li>For a large financial loss incurred by an algorithmic trading platform?</li></ul>

A.I. Accountability

The organisations that mitigate these risks best are those that build on their own ethical standards and gateways throughout the AI lifecycle, from how they collect and prepare data, to how they build, test and deploy models. 
Those that adopt new data and AI risk management practices, processes and tools to both comply with upcoming regulations and to ensure customer trust.

Building Ethical Standards

A new toolkit for C-suite execs on how to responsibly adopt artificial intelligence.

artificialintelligence

Artificial Intelligence

AI: A World of New Opportunity and Risk

The pandemic brought on new challenges that have led businesses to take a huge leap in digitisation. An October 2020 survey found that companies adopted more technology in the previous months than they had over several years. Businesses have benefited from new technologies, as employees worked from home, supply chains revolutionised, and customer habits changed. However, all the latest tools can be disrupting for workers. 43% of workers say they're spending too much time switching between tools to search for the information they need.

An explosion of new technology

Organisations often consider individual pieces of software in a vacuum without considering how each new tool will slot into the already tech-heavy workflow. Instead, they should think of their tech stack as similar to one app, not many. When a new element is introduced to the stack, it should work seamlessly with the other tools, requiring little extra effort. The element should simplify the process and save time for an employee.

Design the tech stack like a single product

Before deciding to implement a new digital tool for all the staff, some businesses first let a few employees try it out and give their initial impressions including if it may be helpful. Companies should use A/B testing to improve their employee experience (EX) the same way they use it to improve the customer experience (CX).

Conduct A/B testing

Many employees have a wide range of digital literacy. However, some workers find new technologies confusing and intimidating. People that oversee the tech stack are often tech-savvy and not a barometer for how easy a new tool is to use. When a new tool is considered, ask the company that creates it what digital skill level it needs. The apps you adopt should be easy to use for as many of your employees as possible.

Build for average literacy

Four in 10 workers say that switching between tools is a major drag on their productivity.

Does Your Team Really Need Another Digital Tool?

A student of the University of Utah teamed up with a researcher at Stanford University to make a video game called Spacewar!
They used to play it in a university lab and saw the potential to convert it into an arcade game encased in a cabinet. 
The final game, called Computer Space, achieved success in 1971 and paved the way for the video game industry, which is now worth more than the music and film industries combined.

SpaceWar! The Start Of Video Games

<ul><li>Pong is widely regarded as the first mainstream success of the arcade gaming revolution and was released by one of the first video game companies, Atari. </li><li>The company was responsible for taking arcade games into homes, by releasing the first home video game consoles having Pong and Space Invaders.</li><li>The 80s saw mainstream action on the arcade front with Super Mario, Tetris, Pacman among other iconic titles that made youngsters throng the neon-lit amusement arcades.</li></ul>

The Birth Of Game Consoles

<ul><li>Market saturation and diminishing interest started to surface in 1985, but the popularity of video games again spiked with the highly innovative Nintendo NES console, selling about 62 million units.</li><li>Games started being increasingly violent, which resulted in movie-like age restrictions and ratings.</li><li>The 90s was also the decade of Sony Playstation, and the First Person Shooter games, pioneered by the gothic and violent Doom.</li></ul>

The Coming Of Nintendo

2001 saw Microsoft getting into video games with the Xbox, bringing with it great titles like Halo and selling millions of units. TheIn 2004, massive multiplayer games debuted with World Of Warcraft, with thousands playing together in real-time. Nintendo released the family-friendly console Wii, which had motion controls that could enable sports-like games with full-body movement.

The Age Of Online Gaming

An indie game released in 2011, Minecraft didn’t have any professional-grade graphics or even a story, but still became a huge hit selling 200 million units.Games became ‘gamblized’ around 2005, with loot boxes that gave random perks for cash and many other legal/illegal options that players could tinker with.

Minecraft: The Swedish Title Breaking Records

A lot of people started playing more and more video games at home after March 2020, when the lockdowns started. Online titles(like the hugely popular Among Us) are showing the highest level of growth during this time, with a new social approach to gaming, integrating it with online tools already in use.

The Pandemic Effect

From an arcade game to a multi-billion pound industry, the BBC charts the ups and downs of video games.

history

History

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

entertainment

Entertainment

Computer Space and beyond: 50 years of gaming

The smartphone, the laptop and now the smartwatch is filled with a constant stream of distractions.
If the mind is always engaged in something, without a single moment of pause or reflection, it becomes jaded, unable to experience life with wonder and curiosity.

Mindfulness In Our Digital Lives

We need to ask ourselves the following:<ol><li>What is my actual experience with technology? It includes how we feel when we scroll through the news or social media feeds.</li><li>What goes on in my body when I use technology? We need to pause and notice how we breathe or if we are holding our breath or standing in a wrong posture just because we are engaged with our phone.</li><li>Does everything need a solution? Tech solutionism refers to viewing everyday activities and experiences as problems and then trying to fix them with technology. Everything is not a problem that needs optimization.</li></ol>

A Healthy Relationship With Technology

Instead of being egocentric and forever trapped in the cycle of voyeurism and narcissism in the many social media platforms, we need to use digital technologies to streamline and solve the many real challenges the world is grappling with.<ul><li>Social injustice, inequality, environmental degradation and other serious issues facing humanity must find their way in our clicks.</li><li>Instead of being a slave to algorithms, we need to get technology to work for the greater good and be mindful of what we do online all the time.</li><li>Even if we cannot do something, at least we can say something.</li></ul>

 One Click At A Time

Tech researcher Dan Nixon offers three practical ways to be more present and purposeful when it comes to our technology and social media.

mindfulness

Mindfulness

health

Health

mentalhealth

Mental Health

communication

Communication

How to Bring Mindfulness to Your Digital Life - Mindful

The International Criminal Police is an intergovernmental organization that facilitates cooperation between the criminal police forces of more than 180 countries.
They aim to promote the widest-possible mutual assistance between criminal police forces and to establish develop institutions that are likely to contribute to the prevention and suppression of international crime.

International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol)

<ul>
<li>1914: A congress of international criminal police was held in Monaco</li>
<li>1923: There was a significant increase in international crime that eventually led to the formation of the ICPC</li>
<li>1938: The outbreak of WWII ended the ICPC&#39;s activities</li>
<li>1949: The ICPC was granted consultative status by the UN</li>
<li>1946-55: The membership grew from 19 countries to 55</li>
<li>1956: The ICPC ratified a new consitution, under which it was renamed the Interpol</li>
<li>1980s: More than 125 member countries have joined despite it being mainly a European organization</li>
<li>2001 onwards, the interpol was reorganized due to the 9/11 attacks to the U.S.</li>
</ul>

Chronological History of the Interpol

The Interpol focuses on three broad categories of international criminal activity:
<ul>
<li>Terrorism</li>
<li>Cybercrime; and</li>
<li>Organized Crime</li>
</ul>
The organization is managed by a General Secretariat under the direction of a Secretary General.
The Interpol has a General Assembly that consists of one delegate from each member country (194 member countries)
They also have an Executive Committee that has 13 members that represent a different region of the world.

Organizations and Functions of the Interpol

The Interpol relies on an extensive telecommunication system and they have a unique database of international police intelligence. They send our notices based on warrants issued by member countries, such as:
<ul>
<li>Red - wanted persons</li>
<li>Yellow - missing persons</li>
<li>Blue - additional information</li>
<li>Black - unidentified bodies</li>
<li>Green - warnings and intelligence</li>
<li>Orange - imminent threat</li>
<li>Purple - modus operandi</li>
<li>Interpol-UN Security Council Special Notice - groups and individuals subjects to UNSEC sanctions</li>
</ul>

Interpol Notices

Interpol, intergovernmental organization that facilitates cooperation between the criminal police forces of more than 180 countries. Interpol aims to promote the widest-possible mutual assistance between criminal police forces and to establish and develop institutions likely to contribute to the

The Complex Systems of Internet of Things Devices Explained

The law of reversed effort

Why pet food is so doggone expensive

How QR codes work—and what makes them dangerous

Marc Andreessen: Interview with an Icon

Khalid Faez