Hearing problems.....

March 3rd 2017 is the World hearing Day.

It appears that folks in Delhi has most problem with hearing and the residents of Vienna, Austria has the least. Very understandable, if you have been in these cities. Just listen to the political commentaries and debates on Indian TV. More then three people seem to talk at the same time and the TV listener (a Viennese resident or anyone else) will be bewildered.

When I returned from Japan after a 3 year stay, my Mom asked me whether there is anything wrong with me as I did not speak loud enough. From the time I returned to the present, noise level has gone up significantly. My friend, who is Japanese attributes the hearing problems in India to relatively large families sizes where each would try to make a point which requires a higher decibel delivery.

This is not say that all Indians are like this, but believe me quite a majority are.

Indian autos with Microsoft Azure Capabilities

Of course it is Microsoft Azure Cloud Services that offers the platform for global automakers.

Here is the list who have signed up with Microsoft:
Renault-Nissan
Toyota
Ford
Most recently Tata Motors of India has inked the collaboration. According to Microsoft's guy in Mumbai they envisage 90% of new cars will be connected in the 2 to 3 years.

Microsoft offers:
IoT
AI
ML (Machine learning)
Global Cloud Management

What's in the offing regarding Tata Motors?

First auto with enhancements vis-a-vis Microsoft will be showcased at the 87th Geneva International Motor show.

Read more details here:
http://www.bsmotoring.com/news/tata-motors-logs-into-microsoft-to-improve-in-car-connected-experience/15303

Use your eye to authenticate...

Windows 10 uses bio-metric signature of an individual as a security feature of a Windows 10 device, be it a Windows Phone or a Windows tablet/PC. Windows Hello makes this possible in Lumia 950 with an iris scanner. It can also be of two other types and some devices may have more than one type. As an alternative the device should also have the option of other non-bio-metric of authentication such as a pin or a username/password pair.

Lumia 950, the Windows 10 phone has an iris scanner built-in to the camera that compares an individual's iris image to the one that it stored during the initial set up and the phone is unlocked when there is match. if not, the phone asks for the pin number to be punched in to unlock.

The other Windows Hello options are finger print recognition and facial recognition.

In what follows I show some of the screen shots for setting this up on a Lumia 950 Phone. Not all types of Windows Phone has this feature.

First of all this is a high resolution photograph of a human iris from an UK site here.
It is easy to believe the iris signature is far superior to finger print if the camera is good.

Setting up Iris Recognition:

Yous start with Settings on your Lumia Phone after setting up a pin to login. In Settings look for Personalization.

Lumia950_00.png

Go down the list and click Lock Screen to open the Lock Screen Page as shown.

Lumia950_01.png

 At the very bottom you find Sign-in options. Click this link. The Sign-in options page opens as shown.

Lumia950_02.png

There is link if you want to know more about Windows Hello. But there is a Iris(Beta) Set up button. Click the button.
You get a Welcome to Windows Hello page. You can not only unlock your phone without complex passwords but you can buy stuff from Windows Store.

Lumia950_03.png

Click on Get Started. The Camera becomes active and you will be asked to move closer or farther (as the case may be) so that the camera can take its standard image of your eye as shown here.

Lumia950_04.png

You will be asked to hold your phone in front of your eyes (I did open my eyes a little more than wider to make sure he camera got it all) as shown.

Lumia950_05.png

Click Next while you are holding the camera and looking into it.

Your setting up has been successful. You may do it even with your glasses on so that with or without glasses you can unlock your phone.

Lumia950_06.png

It did work quite well. There were a few times it did not and then I had to use my pin. But this is much better.

Biological Fractal I found at Whole Foods

Walking along the rows of vegetables and fruits at Whole Foods at Kahala Mall in Honolulu, I found these beautiful specimens of Romanesco Broccoli (aka Veronica). Romanesco Broccoli is one of the many beautiful fractals you find in nature.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractal

Printing from iPhone to a Canon Printer

I have an iPhone6 and I wanted to print to my Canon MX340. I tried the following. It would work if I had at least Canon MX341 or later.

The first thing to check before you try to print with the method suggested here is to make sure you have Windows OS 7 or 8. This may not work with Windows 10.

At first download the following app (Air Photo WiFi Printing) from Apple Store to your phone.

IphonePrint_0

After downloading you launch the app and it opens the following:

IphonePrint_1

Now you go to the computer to which you have connected the printer by a USB connector (this may work even if it is not connected as this app configures Wi-Fi and your printer is recognized by the Bonjour Service) and double click the downloaded file with extension .msi.

This installs the service and follows it up by installing Bonjour Service to discover your phone.
Now choose a photo from your phone.

MelkoteKarnataka.PNG

Click Select Printer.

If your Printer is one of those AirPrint printers then you are in luck otherwise you get a message like this:

 

 iPhonePrint_02

Well which of the printer is an AirPrint printer. There are whole lot of printers in the market and some of them are AirPrint type.

Get a list of all those printers here:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201311

Rocky movies pale compared to Dangal

Dangle is a very fine movie. The best movie I saw in 2016 in Bengaluru.
The story of a ex-wrestler sadly reminiscing of an International championship he did not win due to lack of financial resources. He is single minded and he desperately yearns for a son which unfortunately does not happen. Instead he begets two girls. He does not give up and he trains them to be wrestlers. This is heroic as he lives in a society which cannot imagine girls wearing modern dresses let alone wrestling. He finally manages to make it happen.
This is about his trials in a society that seeped in old world traditions and he finally make it happen thereby changing the world around him.

Fine acting by the cast, plenty of humor and for the foreign audiences, the subtitles are already present. Just watch and enjoy.

I was a big fan of Rocky movies, movies about a boxer who made it to the top. I cannot help comparing the movies and I find that Dangle really comes up to the top. I still like Rocky movies though.

This movies has a rating of 9/10 in IMDB and 83% in Rotten Tomatoes.

Watch the trailer here:


Aamir Khan has done a great job of acting.