Investing Is For Everyone, Here's What You Need To Know

Posted by Andreas Christodoulou

Description :

Social security isn’t going to run out, but its numbers fluctuate and there’s no telling how much it will pay for retirement. It only brings in about 75 percent of what it’s intended to pay out each year, which could leave you with less than you’re hoping for. 

That’s why you need a well-rounded and diversified investment portfolio regardless if your income is low or high. The following lists the various types of investment opportunities available to you, and the importance of using an investment management company to help you ensure long-term success.

Stocks, Bonds, and Mutual Funds

Stocks and Bonds are not similar. Stocks allow you to buy your way into company ownership. Bonds allow you to lend your money out and receive interest and the eventual repayment of capital. Mutual funds combine both stocks and bonds and they’re managed by third-parties. It’s important to choose an investment management company that understands risk. For example, Shailesh Dash, named one of Forbes’ “Top Indian Leaders” in 2015, uses “Fundamental Analysis to Identify Value.”

Analysis is everything, and it’s going to ensure that outcomes are fully researched. This ensures a successful long-term return with fewer risks. Not all management companies are created equal, and not all are so homed in on risk and reward. Even if you’re only investing in your 401k, it’s important to research your management company to ensure they’re doing all they can to protect and grow your money. 

Real Estate 

Home ownership is important, but mortgage debt can hold you back in life. The secret to successful real estate investing is to not live outside your means, and don’t mortgage yourself to death. If you’re considering purchasing your first home, you may want to own a duplex. Live in one side and rent out the other; or, continue to rent and rent out both properties.

Here are a few more ways to invest in real estate that is growing to be a profitable market:

• Senior and disability-friendly apartments/homes.

• Off-campus homes for students.

• Off-base military housing.

• Low-income and halfway houses.

On his LinkedIn page, Shailesh Dash recommends that you utilize a qualified management company to evaluate and optimize your real estate portfolio. This is a good advice, because it minimizes risk and maximizes reward. You’ll receive a “Full Spectrum of Debt Management… including Acquisition Finance, Debt Restructuring, Strategic Debt Financing, and Coordination of Bank Syndicates.” As well as your assets will be evaluated, your transactions structured, and more.

Alternative Investments

Alternative investments are any investments that don’t fall into the traditional category of stocks, bonds, and cash. Real estate is considered an alternative investment, but it deserved its own space on this page, because it’s one of the best ways for lower income individuals to build wealth. Other examples of alternative investments include wine, art, precious metals, hedge funds, private equity, and venture capital. 

If you're interested in reliable investments for retirement, certain collections are always a great choice. For example, silver and gold are two things you can always buy low and sell high. The secret is to know when to buy and when to sell. Don’t just buy silver now because you have some extra money; instead, place that money into a savings account and wait for silver to go down. Luckily, there are lots of places online that monitor the prices of silver and gold and can help you make a good decision of when and where to buy.

As far as investing, it’s never too late to start. But, the earlier you start the better. No matter where you are in life (in college, in debt post college, or middle-aged), investing in your future can only help you. Talk to a money manager now, and you can start putting away what you need to have a carefree retirement. 

Looking forward to your comments.

*by andreascy*

Why Silver Should Be Part of Your Portfolio

Posted by Andreas Christodoulou

Description :

You have heard the debate over silver. One side says buy silver as a hedge against inflation and a protection of your assets in the event of a financial crash. The other side says that silver has no real value because it is just a metal that sits around collecting dust – i.e., you cannot use it to buy a loaf of bread. So which side is right? Is it smart to buy silver or not?

Every successful investor knows that the foundation of success is diversification. In other words, you do not put all your investment eggs in one basket. If you do, you are risking losing everything. Diversification reduces risk by putting your money in multiple vehicles that are likely to react differently to market forces.

The question of whether to add silver to your portfolio or not is based partly on the idea of diversification. But not just diversification as a means of protection. Diversification can also be a means of growth as well. That growth potential is why you should buy silver.

Find a Good Ratio

Before explaining how diversification can produce growth, talking about finding a good ratio is appropriate. The ratio of silver to the rest of your investments is a question a lot of inexperienced metal buyers struggle with. The general rule is to base silver on the amount of money you have in bonds and annuities. The ratio is 10 to 1. Every dollar in silver should be offset by $10 in bonds and annuities.

What if you do not have bonds or annuities? What if you only have stock holdings? The 10 to 1 ratio still works, but you will have to find something that makes you comfortable. The thing to understand is that your silver holdings should be a significantly smaller allocation that provides security over quick returns.

Moving on to growth, do not be fooled by the current illusion that investment in silver is short-term only. That thinking is based on the annual cycle gold and silver tend to follow. That cycle dictates that silver peaks in April, falls between May and June, stabilizes in July, and begins to pick up again in December. The cycle has little to do with long-term silver holdings.

Using Silver to Fund Growth

Silver and other precious metals are commonly promoted as a hedge against inflation. That is absolutely true. But that brings us back to the argument that you cannot use silver to buy a loaf of bread. To have any real value, you have to buy silver at a lower price and then sell at a higher price so that you have cash to purchase what you need. Therein lies the secret of using silver to produce growth.

Right now, we are seeing a concerted effort by central banks to devalue currency. Why? Because they are trying to spur positive inflation. Remember that inflation can be both good and bad. It is bad when income does not keep pace; it is good when it encourages economic activity by giving businesses more cash to work with.

There are three reasons central banks devalue currency as a way of producing good inflation. The first is to boost the value of exports. When a nation's currency falls, the cost of its exports to foreign markets also falls, making them more attractive to consumers. This increases demand, which then spurs growth at home.

The second reason is to reduce trade deficits. Increased exports occur alongside decreased imports when currency is devalued. Trade deficits begin to shrink in line with the balance of payments as a result. Once again, this encourages economic growth in the country where currency is being devalued.

Finally, currency is devalued in order to reduce the amount of interest nations pay on the money they borrow. This has less of an effect on stimulating the economy, but it does help some.

The point of all this is to say that if you buy silver at the same time currency is being devalued you are essentially getting in at the low point. The value of silver will only climb as currency goes lower and good inflation takes hold. Bear in mind that this is no short-term strategy. It takes several quarters of persistent currency devaluation to realize growth potential from precious metals like silver.

Selling Your Silver

Assuming you buy silver now to take advantage of currency devaluation, when and how do you sell it? That depends on how long you want to hold on to your investment. One way to look at it is to play silver and gold together. Their growth rates tend to rise and fall inversely.

You could buy silver now and then let it ride to the end of the year. Silver should peak somewhere between December and April of next year, at which point you could sell just enough to cover your profits while leaving the original amount in your portfolio. Take that profit and purchase gold instead. Ride the gold until the difference between the metals peaks, then take the profits from gold and put them back into silver as the difference corrects.

The Best Places to Buy Silver Online

 • Money Metals Exchange - https://www.moneymetals.com/buy/silver

 • JM Bullion - https://www.jmbullion.com/silver

This Year Might Be Different

The point of all the information provided here is to suggest that 2017 might be different compared to what silver has shown us the last couple of years. There are a number of strong signs that indicate silver is not going to sharply decline as it normally does. There is a reason companies like J.P. Morgan are aggressively increasing their silver holdings.

Silver could be on the verge of a big run-up thanks to global currency devaluation, improving European and American economies, and all the optimism displayed since the election of President Trump. There is no guarantee that silver will boom in 2017, but it is not likely to bust either.

Silver should be part of your portfolio because it affords growth opportunities. If you don't have any, there is no better time to buy silver than right now.

SIMILAR ARTICLE TO READ: Bitcoin Phenomenon: A Bright Future or a Growing Bubble?

For anyone who wants to connect with me, I'm on Twitter. Would love to hear from you!

*by andreascy*

The Enormous Rise of Artificial Neural Networks

Posted by Andreas Christodoulou

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Artificial Neural Networks, which are also known as ANNs have received a lot of attention recently. The increasing awareness of Artificial Intelligence has contributed a lot towards their popularity.

The Artificial Neural Networks can simply be defined as biologically inspired networks. In other words, these networks work similar to the human brain. As is probably well known, the human brain consists of billions of special cells named as neurons. To be precise, it has been estimated that a typical human brain consists of about 150 billion neurons. These neurons are inter-connected with each other to form a network. As a result, the human brain can be considered as a collection of neural networks.

The Concept of Neural Computing

The application of Artificial Neural Networks is known as Neural Computing. Neural computing uses a limited amount of concepts that are borrowed from biological neural systems. The main objective of Artificial Neural Networks is to simulate massively parallel processes that are associated with interconnected processing elements in network architecture. An artificial neuron would be the building block of an Artificial Neural Network.

A neuron would receive inputs from the other neurons that are connected to it. And conversely, the output of a neuron will be passed to several other connected neurons. The same mechanism takes place within the human brain as well. Likewise, the artificial signals processed by the neurons can be changed. How Artificial Neural Networks process information entirely depends on its structure. The algorithm that is being used to process information can also create an impact on it.

Application and Benefits of Artificial Neural Networks

Artificial Neural Networks can be applied to a variety of scenarios. The benefits that are associated with these applications have contributed a lot towards their proliferation over the past decade. The most popular areas where ANNs are being applied include learning, pattern recognition and interpretation of noise and incomplete inputs.

Humans follow a different approach when solving problems when compared to computers. The objective of Artificial Neural Networks is to make computers think and solve issues like human beings. This can help computers to solve complex problems, which cannot be solved with a rule based approach. In other words, Artificial Neural Networks are being used to solve complex problems that cannot be simulated using analytical or logical techniques. They have the potential to solve issues, which cannot be solved even with expert systems. Pattern recognition is a perfect example to prove the aforementioned fact.

Artificial Neural Networks are in a position to analyze large amounts of data in an effective manner. After the analysis, it can establish characteristics and patterns, where rules or logic are not known. Loan applications are a perfect example for such a situation. After going through a large number of historical cases, the questionnaire of the applicant is either accepted or rejected. Only Artificial Neural Networks have the ability to automate this process of approving loans.

Artificial Neural Networks also have the ability to create profiles or patterns of applications that need to be denied or approved. Then a new application is matched against a pattern by the computer. The computer would gain the intelligence to classify whether it is a “yes” or “no”. Otherwise, it would go for the decision of humans. That’s the main reason why neural networks are being used for a variety of financial applications such as predicting exchange rates, predicting bankruptcy and determining when to purchase and sell stock.

Artificial Neural Networks and Smart Computers

Computer systems have gone through significant development throughout the past few years. Artificial Neural Networks have contributed a lot towards this evolution. As a result, people in the 21st century prefer to use computers to accomplish most of their day to day needs.

A traditional computer has the potential to perform millions of operations within a second. However, this type of computer is not in a position to think like a human and make decisions by themselves. In other words, the traditional computers do not have the ability to perform certain tasks on their own. You will need to program those computers to make them perform certain tasks, but you will not be able to make them solve problems in the way humans do. That’s where Artificial Neural Networks come into play.

Artificial Intelligence can simply be defined as a set of techniques, which are entirely based on the behavioral patterns of the human brain. It can learn on its own and make decisions like humans do. Most of the living beings that exist on this planet are biological systems that learn on their own. They are capable of making useful decisions as well. Generally these decisions are based on the instinct of survival.

Human beings need to learn before they can make decisions. The same principle applies for machines as well. Machines differ from biological systems though in that they will have to learn new things through mathematical algorithms. However, Artificial Neural Networks have given machines the opportunity to learn new things like human beings. This has given life to a brand new aspect in computing as well.

The use of Artificial Intelligence and Artificial Neural Networks are being implemented mostly in the software industry at the moment. This has the potential to emulate the parallel nature of an Artificial Neural Network into a linear system. As mentioned earlier, Artificial Neural Networks are being used on a variety of applications such as image reconstruction, character recognition and voice recognition.

Neural networks can also be found in a variety of applications such as robotics. People however are extremely concerned about automation and the danger of robots taking over their lives as a result of advances in the field of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. These fears derive from the fact that whilst Artificial Intelligence is helping the humans to achieve a better standard of living, it is also important to keep in mind that transferring the biological capabilities of humans to computers can make us more dependent on them.

In this respect, special attention has been attributed towards Artificial Neural Networks. This is because Artificial Neural Networks have the ability to make computers think like human beings and solve complex problems which in effect means that it can humanize computers. Such a prospect creates all sorts of anxiety and extreme scenarios. Nevertheless, for the time being, research is focused on different medical applications of ANNs with beneficial results for humans. What remains to be seen is how future research and practice in this exciting area will continue to grow.

READ THIS: Real Life Super Humans Via Robotic Software

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*by andreascy*

Bitcoin Phenomenon: A Bright Future or a Growing Bubble?

Posted by Andreas Christodoulou

Description :

Happy Mother's Day, everyone. "Mother love is the fuel that enables a normal human being to do the impossible" ~ Marion C. Garretty 

Wishing you some peace and serenity this coming week. As you must have noticed, I've been MIA (Missing In Action) for a while and that's because I've been busy with my team finishing another project we took on. Exciting things are happening! Want to know more? Subscribe for future updates. 

Now... Let's talk Bitcoin! Have you heard about it? Yes? No? Ok. 

The idea of Bitcoin was introduced by it's founder, Satoshi Nakamoto, the face behind the world's most successful digital currency, with transactions of nearly $500 million a day at its peak. The Bitcoin system is not controlled by any organizations and it's concept is hard to know. 

Satoshi launched a peer-to-peer payments system (kind of like BitTorrent) in 2009 with the goal that it would deliver a borderless digital cash without the supervision of any government, and no central info would follow the transactions. Bitcoin, a substitute currency that does not exist physically, has become the talk of the economic world as people lose faith within the monetary unit and other different traditional currencies (Euro, etc.). The digital currency created and utilized in the system is also known as virtual currency, electronic cash, or a crypto currency, as cryptography is employed to regulate it's creation and transfer. Bloomberg Businessweek calls it the "anarchist crypto-currency".

The strained rise-and-fall of Bitcoin has multitudinous stories explaining why the net virtual currency could also be a classic bubble. But the Bitcoin development is over a bubble, and it has risen to such high numbers, because it's an uncomfortable combination of commodity and currency. The commodity value of bitcoins is rooted in their currency value, but the more of a commodity they become, the less useful they are as a currency. Bitcoins have skyrocketed in value: back in 2010, one Bitcoin was worth four cents. In line with Mark T. Williams (Boston University, School of Management), Bitcoin is over seven times as volatile as gold and over eight times as volatile as the S&P 5 hundred.

One factor is enough to destroy the future of the worldwide economy. You’ll be ready to create the coin by "mining" it online. It takes somewhat advanced algorithmic computations on your system to do it, so the overall public is not obtaining yet any Bitcoins. 

You can pay with Bitcoins on sites like Pizza For Coins, which might take your Bitcoin payment, and place your order with Domino's Pizza (DPZ +0.10%). Bitcoin uses public-key cryptography, during which a public and a private cryptography secret is generated. Risk of stealing could be reduced by generating keys offline on associated uncompromised systems and saving them on external storage devices or paper printouts. 

Growth of Bitcoin funds is predefined by the Bitcoin protocol, and through this approach, inflation is restrained. Presently, there is a unit of over twelve million Bitcoins in circulation with an approximate creation rate of 25 Bitcoins every 10 minutes. The entire offer is capped at the arbitrary limit of 21,000,000, and in every four years the creation rate is halved. This means new Bitcoins will still be free for over one hundred years.

Bitcoins may be bought and sold out from individuals and companies for many totally different currencies. The fastest way to get Bitcoins is a local face-to-face cash transaction and wallet-to-wallet. Some investors, like Peter Thiel (Founders Fund) who invested US$3 million, did not purchase any Bitcoins but instead funded Bitcoin infrastructure, like Bitcoin exchanges, companies that supply Bitcoin payment systems to merchants, etc. Some other investors, in addition, invest in Bitcoin mining. Bitcoin ATMs allow Bitcoins to be purchased for cash, and they allow cash withdrawals from Bitcoin wallets on phones. 

Bitcoin payment fees as a unit of measurement are typically not up to those of credit cards or cash transfers. They are a hedge against almost all currencies. "The bitcoin bubble is about to wipe out some very gullible nerds" as tweeted by CNBC's John Carney. Another Twitter user delineates Bitcoins as 21st-century "tulip bulbs". Bitcoin detractors and supporters have urged that Bitcoin is gaining quality in countries with problem-plagued national currencies, as an effect of it that ought to be utilized to dodge expansion, capital controls, and global approvals. As an example, Bitcoins are used by some Argentineans’ as an alternate currency to be utilized to evade swelling, capital controls, and universal authorizations. 

Francois R. Velde, a senior economist at the Federal Reserve in Chicago, represented it as "an elegant implementation”. Economists Brad DeLong and Paul Krugman have found fault in Bitcoin, asking about why Bitcoins need to be a reasonably stable store of value or whether or not there is a floor on their price. Social scientist John Quiggin has criticized Bitcoin as the final refutation of the economical market hypothesis.

Bitcoins become connected with online criminal behavior and questionable cyber-criminals. Used to amend online transactions, Bitcoins are appropriated once dark web black markets are shut down by authorities. This association with criminal activities has stigmatized the currency and attracted the attention of financial regulators, legislative bodies, and enforcement agencies. Criminal activity involving Bitcoin has foremost been targeted on stealing the currency, concealment, the use of bonnets for mining, and conjointly the utilization of Bitcoins in exchange for ill-gotten things or services.

In Oct. 2013 the FBI (the primary law enforcement agency of United States Department of Justice) closed down the black market (for illegal drugs) and seized 144,000 Bitcoins, worth close to $28.5 million at currency exchange rates. Also in December a McAfee survey found that a ten-fold surge in the last quarter in the number of cyber attacks - significantly ransom-ware wherever data cannot be accessed until a payment is received - had been driven by rise of Bitcoin usage.

It seems clear that there are places where Bitcoin has the potential to cause some serious problems to the financial industry. I wonder if it will ever receive a critical mass of support from vendors/investors to reach the circulation levels of the world's major currencies. Although it is rough for Bitcoin right now as regulators are not sure what to do with it, i still believe it's here to stay (unless you turn off the Internet).

Update As Of 16th of June, 2017 

The most recent update on Bitcoin fortune's, comes only a day ago. It seems that the news is not all good as following an all-time highs over the past week, Bitcoin - alongside Ethereum - saw a dramatic fall of 25% on Thursday, leaving investors and blockchain enthusiasts puzzled. According to Coinbase, a major cryptocurrency exchange, Bitcoin price fell as low as $2079. This is quite a noticable drop, almost 30% compared to the record high $3,000 milestone reported last weekend. Since the steep slide, the renown digital currency stormed back, experiencing a rise, currently trading up at around $2500-$2540. Investors do feel the heat and are called upon to make important decisions as to whether they need to sell or buy. Still, it remains to be seen what the future holds as economists and financial experts hold contradicted views on the matter.

(Disclaimer: All information is provided for educational purposes only and should not be relied on for making any investment decisions.)

SEE ALSO: 7 Useful Pieces of Advice for Accounting Students

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The Future Of Link Building Strategies - 2013

Posted by Andreas Christodoulou

Description :

There has been major upheaval in the search engine optimization space this year. There have been major Google updates over the years but the most major ones were the Panda and Penguin updates in the previous years. This year the major upheaval has been caused by the latest update christened Google Penguin 2.0. This is an update that takes the earlier major update Penguin forward. While the earlier updates ensured that content remains king, the new update is targeting all spam search engine optimization techniques. 

So in this new era of Google, how does a search engine optimization company ensure that a website ranks well on the search engine behemoth’s results? Though there is still no guarantee that a SEO company will surely rank your website in search engine results, there are a few strategies that have proved beneficial for many and if properly utilized can be beneficial for all websites. Even though Google has tightened its algorithm some tried and tested strategies like link building maintains it’s pre-eminence.

Future of Link Building Strategies

Link building as the name suggests is all about building links for your websites using anchor text (keywords). Many SEO companies target a few keywords which they feel will be beneficial for the website. But with SEO companies building a lot of links for the same keyword, it has raised a red flag for Google. So, what can be done to overcome this? To overcome this one has to have a diverse link building strategy. Instead of getting back links for a particular keyword, you need to use LSI keywords. 

LSI or Latent Semantic Indexing (Don’t worry this is just a fancy name for related keywords) is essential to diversify your anchor text. Not just related keywords you need to use the bare URL of your website to link back to you and also common phrases like “Click Here”, “Read More” etc. This will make your back links seem more natural and you will reap the benefits.

Try to get back links from authority websites as they will give you more value. Websites that do not have authority or websites in bad neighborhoods will only harm your website. Social media is a big thing nowadays and getting links from social media websites are a huge plus. Try to build a brand with your link building strategy.

Need help with your SEO? Contact us and learn how to create your own messaging and marketing system that will deliver consistent sales to your business and save you time in the process!

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Introducing PanaCast : Can Six Little Cameras and An App Fix Video Conferencing?

Posted by Andreas Christodoulou

Description : 

We Live In A Distributed, Mobile World 

Today we are more mobile than ever. We work in different locations and this places new requirements on our collaboration tools. Video chats have become quite popular whether you are using Skype or Google Hangouts but in the work setting this can be a real pain. 

One problem with those platforms is that they do not give you the full view and immersive experience of actually being there. Multi-screen telepresence systems only work if you are in a dedicated telepresence room and cost a lot! 

Now imagine a low cost solution that solves that problem and lets you remotely see everything in the meeting room on the devices you already own, from anywhere.

Meet Altia Systems - Experience PanaCast

Altia Systems is a venture-backed company based in Cupertino, California that has created the PanaCast solution. 

PanaCast is a unique experience that enables anyone on desktop or mobile (currently the app is iOS only, but it was written in Ubuntu Linux, and Android, OS X and Windows 7 and 8 versions are in the works) to receive an interactive, real-time panoramic HD 200 degree Field Of View (FOV) video stream that replicates the human panoramic perspective.

It's a crowdfunded brand new technology that combines unique, patented hardware and state-of-the-art algorithms and software, all the way from optics, video capture and transport through rendering on client devices. It gives you the same control and human visual perspective of actually being in the meeting.

PanaCast - Lets You Be There From Anywhere

The PanaCast Experience helps connect friends and co-workers anywhere in our tele-connected world, giving everybody a panoramic human visual perspective in real time.

Unique hardware and software - integrated in this new ultra-low latency, multi-imager, panoramic-HD real-time video camera and integrated streaming server - create an immersive HD live video stream with a 200° field of view at an unprecedented price point. It's camera has six imagers, an SoC with dual ARM11 cores and a custom-built Multi-Imaging Video Processor (MIVP) along with an Ethernet port and a USB 2.0 port.

Mobile (Android, iOS) and PC (Windows, Mac) apps enable you to select your own individual perspective from the camera with the swipe of a finger, over Wi-Fi or cellular. Easily carried in one hand, PanaCast cameras can be taken or moved anywhere.

•  Unique interactive video experience "to be there"

•  Amazing ease of use on your device from anywhere

•  Disruptive price points allowing BYOD

You can zoom in on the speaker, or zoom in on the whiteboard, all without affecting the views of other remote participants. You control what you see, just as if you were there. 

PanaCast is priced below $700 and comes with free apps that give meeting participants the full immersive experience on the devices they already own : mobile as well as PCs. While it's compatible with existing video chat services, it'll cost $19.99/mo per concurrent user if you want access to Panacast's cloud platform. Altia Systems founders explain below the video conferencing system at DEMO Mobile 2013.

Check out the PanaCast app live to your iOS device or register your interest in ordering PanaCast Systems. To join a video conference, download the app. Once you have it opened and a cellular or Wi-Fi connection, scan the barcode or tap your phone on the NFC-enabled camera to join. 

If you do not have a PanaCast camera, the app allows you to watch a short demonstration video of the PanaCast interactive experience. 

*by andreascy*

The Anternet : Researchers Revealed How Ants Developed Internet Before Us

Posted by Andreas Christodoulou

Description : 

Before researchers developed the Internet, red harvester ants (Pogonomyrmex barbatus) developed the "Anternet". A surprisingly similar communications network using the same Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) that the Internet uses to manage data transmissions 

Stanford University biology professor Deborah Gordon loves ants. She's got pictures of them on her walls, sculptures of them on her desk, and about 8000 live ants running around her lab. She's been studying them for more than 20 years. 

Recently, when she came to understand how colonies of harvester ants regulate foraging, that is, how they decide how fast to send out ant to gather food, she thought that the ant algorithm could apply to other types of networks. She went to Stanford's Computer Science & Engineering professor, Balaji Prabhabar, with her idea to set up a series of experiments to test the theory.

Gordon was right.

"An ant colony, like many other complex systems, works without any central control. There’s no one in charge, nobody tells the ants what to do, and they have to use the information they get from local interactions to decide what to do", Deborah said.

"What the Internet and the Anternet have in common is the algorithm itself that is used by senders of data", Prabhakar said.

If you like this article you can read more at IEEE Spectrum. Discover other interesting Nature topics and let us know what you think.

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Microsoft Research : Automated Intelligence in Your Daily Life

Posted by Andreas Christodoulou

Description : 

Over the last decade, technical and infrastructural developments have created a nurturing environment for developing applications of machine learning and reasoning - and for harnessing automated intelligence to assist people in the course of their daily lives.

Microsoft researchers continue to push the state of the art in applying machine intelligence to the daily lives of people through research in algorithms and technologies to discover knowledge from large-scale data. By building software that automatically learns from data, the goal is to enable applications to behave more intelligently and enable users to become more productive.

Read also other interesting stories from Microsoft Research. Share this topic with your social circles and subscribe on our RSS feed to stay updated with out latest news!

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TED : Michael Hansmeyer - Building Unimaginable Shapes

Posted by Andreas Christodoulou

Description : 

Classical architecture is defined by "orders" - ways to connect a column to a building, to articulate the joining of materials and structural forces. Colloquially, these orders are based on elemental forms : the tree trunk, the plank, the scroll, the leaf. 

Michael Hansmeyer is adding a new elemental form : the subdivision algorithm. He turns his math and programming skills to making ornate, organic, hyperdetailed columns generated from lines of code and then comped up in cross-sections of cardboard, almost as if they're being 3D printed.

His latest work with cupolas and domes is even more mesmerizing, like looking deep inside an organic form of near-unbearable complexity.

Inspired by cell division, Michael writes algorithms that design outrageously fascinating shapes and forms with millions of facets. No person could draft them by hand, but they're buildable - and they could revolutionize the way we think of architectural form. This presentation was recorded at TEDGlobal 2012.

If you liked our article feel free to comment below and discover even more TED Performances.

*by andreascy*