Dfinityappeared in 2018, amid the flurry of investments in the blockchain space. It raised $102 million in funding at a $2 billion valuation in a round jointly led by Andreessen Horowitz and Polychain Capital, along with other investors, including KR1. I must admit that at the time it appeared for all intents and purposes as if it would be yet another attempt to replace Ethereum. Or at least something similar. But then something odd happened. It started behaving like an actual software company.
In January this year it didn’t talk about blockchain at all, but instead demonstrated an open social network called “LinkedUp,” sort of open version of LinkedIn. The demonstration didn’t go live, and technically speaking it was under-whelming — until you realized it wasn’t running on any server, and performed faster than a native mobile app. Dfinity, it turned out, wasn’t a traditional blockchain startup, but was taking a leaf out of that world’s championing of the move toward decentralization.
In fact, it was building its so-called “Internet Computer”: a decentralized and non-proprietary network to run the next generation of “mega-applications.”
Today it announced that the “Internet Computer” is now open to third-party developers and entrepreneurs to build that next generation. The vision is to “reboot” the internet in a way that destroys the ability to create virtual monopolies like Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and WhatsApp.
As its next technical demonstration, it launched “CanCan”, a TikTok-like app that will run in a browser (though it is not publicly available as such) and which is not owned by a company. The idea is that anyone could build their own TikTok.
The tantalizing part of Dfinity’s ideas is that because of the nature of the architecture, apps like CanCan can be built with less than 1,000 lines of code. Facebook, to take an example, contains more than 62 million lines of code.
To achieve this, Dfinity is drawing on the work of Andreas Rossberg, co-creator of WebAssembly, who has now created Motoko, a new programming language optimized for Dfinity’s Internet Computer.
The Internet Computer’s serverless architecture allows the internet to natively host software and services, eliminating — claims Dfinity — the need for proprietary cloud services. Without web servers, databases and firewalls, developers can create powerful software much more quickly, and that software then runs far faster than normal.
Dominic Williams, founder and chief scientist at Dfinity, said in a statement: “One of the biggest problems emerging in technology is the monopolization of the internet by Big Tech — companies that have consolidated near-total control over our technologies. They collect vast amounts of information about us that they sell for profit and leverage to amass greater market share, and acquire or bulldoze rivals at an alarming rate… The Internet Computer provides a means to reboot the internet — creating a public alternative to proprietary cloud infrastructure. It will empower the next-generation of developers and entrepreneurs to take on Big Tech with open internet services. It aims to bring the internet back to its free and open roots — not dominated by a handful of corporations.”
This “Tungsten” release of the Internet Computer means third-party developers and entrepreneurs will be able to start kicking the tyres on this platform and start spitting out web apps and even smartphone apps.
Projects currently being built include a decentralized payment application and a “pan-industry platform for luxury goods,” whatever that is. Successful and promising applications may also benefit from Beacon Fund, an ecosystem fund stewarded by the Dfinity Foundation and Polychain Capital that aims to support ‘DeFi’ apps and open internet services built on the Internet Computer.
Interested developers and enterprises can submit an application to access the Internet Computer starting July 1, 2020, via dfinity.org.
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Dfinity demonstrates its TikTok clone, opens up its ‘Internet Computer’ to outside developers - TechCrunch
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Marvel's Iron Man VR for PlayStation 4 has been meet with excited responses from fans who went hands on with the game's free demo. Marvel fans and video game critics have been impressed with the experience of suiting up for some time as the Armored Avenger but there have been some demands from gamers after their 40-minute demo came to an end. Those requests are not going unheard. The team behind Marvel's Iron ManVR has made a few improvement to the game ahead of its launch to ensure the best experience, according to Camouflaj's Iron Man VR director Ryan Payton.
"As a team, we spent a day and just watched and listened to the community in terms of how they react to the demo," Payton told ComicBook.com in an interview ahead of Iron ManVR's launch. "We were just grinning from ear to ear about just how positive everything was, and we were just really excited. That being said, we noticed a few things that we wanted to improve in the full game, just based on how players were reacting. There's a number of things that are just under the hood that are going to make the flying and the combat feel all that much better, but, more specifically, there was a few things such as some of the turning speed feedback that we received. Top of the list was even though you're flying at speeds somewhere around 250 miles an hour, people wanted to go faster, so we did make a tweak to allow players to boost even faster and more frequently, to the detriment of our engineering team. So, that's something for players look forward to with that."
For gamers who compare their experience with the demo to the full game, it sounds like turning will be sharp and flying with be faster, among other slight changes.
"The demo is a very robust demo, I think, compared to most free demos out there for PlayStation games," Payton explains. "That's something that our partners at PlayStation were really supportive of, of this idea that we wanted to give players enough of a taste of the core gameplay mechanics to the point where they have enough context that they can become comfortable with it. Like that first feel, that you kind of feel like you are Tony in terms of just getting used to this whole idea of you being in the armor and flying at high speeds. What we didn't want to do is just give a tease, just as you're starting to feel comfortable, and then it's like, 'Hey, wait for the full game.'"
There is no official word on how long the game will take to complete but almost all of the core game play mechanics are on display in the demo. "That set of core mechanics probably represents 70% or 80% of what the moment-to-moment gameplay is in the game," Payton says. "One of the great challenges of building the full campaign is that it does take time for players to learn how to do these things as Iron Man while flying, shooting, ground pounding, rocket punching, and unibeaming, and we've really had to work hard to make sure that we're introducing these mechanics with enough time in between because it is so intense and it is such a big, cinematic action game. That's been one of the things I didn't anticipate, and it ended up being one of our greatest challenges when we developed the full campaign."
What are you most looking forward to when suiting as Iron Man with this new virtual reality experience? Share your thoughts in the comment section or send them my way on Instagram! Stay tuned to ComicBook.com/Gaming for more from our interview with Payton and Bill Rosemann, VP and Head of Creative at Marvel Games, throughout the week for more updates like theunexpected MCU parallels and other Avengers characters or references fans can expect.
Marvel's Iron ManVR comes available on July 3.
Disclosure: ComicBook is owned by CBS Interactive, a division of ViacomCBS.
It's been awhile since a music-rhythm game has really gotten any attention. The genre was everywhere in the mid-2000s, with games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band popping up everywhere from bars to rehab clinics to an episode of South Park. But while those games fizzled out in the last decade, Harmonix has never really gone away. In addition to still supporting 2015's Rock Band 4 with new DLC songs, the developer has continued to release new music-rhythm games, experimenting with VR, dance and turntablism throughout the 2010s. Its next game, Fuser, takes the lesson of Harmonix's past hits and brings the genre into the 2020s.
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The concept of Fuser will be familiar to those who remember Harmonix's 2017 game, DropMix. Also a DJ-ing game, DropMix used a special board that read NFC-equipped cards to play and combine music samples. An interesting concept that incorporated the toys-to-life craze of the 2010s, the game's reliance on a physical board with a high cost of entry and collectable cards kept it from really taking off.
Fuser eliminates one of the most charming but frustrating aspects most people associate with Harmonix games: the bulky peripheral that you'd need to find room for or lug out of storage every time you wanted to jump back into the game. Not only this is a welcome and inviting change, it also fits with Fuser's goal. You don't need a plastic recreation of a guitar, board or turntable to play a recreation of someone else's music; with Fuser, you are creating something of your own.
Fuser is a game that embraces creativity and customization on every level. At launch, the game will feature over 100 songs, about 30 of which have already been announced. These include throwbacks like The Clash's "Rock the Casbah" and Blue Öyster Cult's "(Don't Fear) The Reaper," as well as contemporary hits like Billie Eilish's "bad guy" and Lizzo's "Good as Hell."
The songs cover a wide range genres from country to R&B to pop that can be combined in surprising and exhilarating ways. While some combinations sound better than others, and it takes some practice to create anything that sounds as good as what you'll hear in the trailers, there's nothing quite as satisfying as putting two songs that shouldn't go together in your mix and finding that the combination inexplicably works. Certain tracks, like the strings from "Call Me Maybe," the keyboard of "I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)" and the beat of "Bodak Yellow" sound good with almost anything, even when combined with the oft-memed vocals of Smash Mouth's "All Star." The number of "Old Town Road" remixes that blew up last year makes so much more sense after playing around with Fuser and finding how versatile that song really is.
On top of combining licensed tracks, players can also perform with instruments by interacting with a grid to play different sounds. These can also be turned into a loop and added to your mix. It sounds pretty good even if you're just messing around with the controller around to see what works, but skilled players who have practiced or have a solid understanding of music theory will certainly be able to create some awesome loops and solos with it.
If all of these options seem intimidating, the game's Campaign acts as a tutorial, introducing new mechanics and upping the difficulty and volume of challenges as you progress. While there is something of a narrative with NPCs to meet and learn from, the developers have said the game doesn't tell a "rise to fame" story. It's simply about being a DJ and performing on a variety of stages.
You'll start out building a mix one track at a time, switching things out before it gets stale and completing different goals, like playing vocals from a country song or having at least two R&B tracks going for a certain amount of time. These'll challenge players to switch it up and drop tracks at the right time without overwhelming the crowd with a new song every beat. These levels, at least in the demo, can be punishing, as if you fail, you'll need to go back and redo the entire thing. This includes being taught the level's basic skills. Regardless, the campaign will help you learn the various mechanics you'll want to use in your mixes. There's also Freestyle mode, which allows players to refine their skills and experiment without the pressure of a crowd to impress.
The music isn't the only place where players can get creative, as they'll also be able to customize their character and stages. Here, there are tons of options, with more to unlock as you go. Theses allow players to create a DJ that truly represents them regardless of race, body type and gender identity, even providing skin color options for players with vitiligo. None of the options are gender-locked, so you're free to combine masculine facial features with feminine hairstyles and any of the various clothing options, which comes in solid colors and loud patterns.
A huge part of festival culture is the celebration of self-expression and individuality, and Fuser embraces that. Also notable is the fact that the default avatar (at least in this demo) is a Black woman, and darker skin tones come before lighter ones in the menu. This is a subtle but welcome way to emphasize the massive contributions of Black artists to DJ culture.
While during gameplay you'll be more focused on the crowd and your mix to focus much on yourself, you can pick from different personalities to affect how your character acts during performances. These styles, like joy, originality and energy correspond with those of your mentors from the campaign, so you'll likely unlock more as you work with different characters.
As for the stages, there's plenty you can play around with to create an epic venue for your performance. Not only can you customize the effects, pyrotechnics and time of day, you can also pick out holograms and crowd items. For example, you might want to give the crowd glow sticks for a nighttime performance and signs during the daytime. Just like the character options, there's plenty to customize and unlock here. You can create whatever setting appeals to you, whether that's a traditional, cool stage with dancers and fireworks, or a colorful, whimsical stage full of cupcakes and corgis.
This demo is only the start for Fuser. There are still dozens of songs to be announced, and Harmonix has said there are plans to support the game with DLC tracks and customizations so long there is a demand for more content. The developers also teased multiplayer modes, which will be shown off later this Summer. While no specifics have been announced yet, Harmonix says there will be competitive and collaborative modes that'll allow players to test their skills in comparison to others and work together on mixes.
With so many options available, it'll be interesting to see what players will be able to put together both in terms of music and visuals once Fuser launches. The game's customization gives players unique opportunities to create brilliant, extravagant, Coachella-like performances, as well as meme-worthy, uncanny combinations of colorful, saccharine stages and eerie, minor-key mash-ups. It may also scratch that itch for music festival attendees saddened that these kinds of huge, lively events that are highlights of the summer are on-hold for the time being.
Developed by Harmonix and published by NCSoft, Fuser will release for PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch in 2020.
Noelle is a Features Editor for CBR. She can usually be found underneath a large pile of Pokémon plushies thinking about an RPG she never completed while trying to finish a different RPG. On the occasions Noelle remembers she has a Twitter, she can be found @Noelle_Corbett.
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Fuser Demo: Harmonix's New Rhythm Game Offers Freedom, Music and Corgis - CBR - Comic Book Resources
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We’re taking it none of you have forgotten the UE5 tech demo yet. Who could have? Epic Games, in a press release, said that with the upcoming engine the company is aiming to “achieve photorealism on par with movie CG and real life”, and the demo we all saw didn’t fail to impress these ambitions on us. But what we didn’t see is how GPU-intensive this demo was – it turns out, not all that much.
We recently spoke to Epic Games and learnt a little more about making Unreal Engine 5. Vice president of engineering Nick Penwarden said, “I can say that the GPU time spent rendering geometry in our UE5 demo is similar to the geometry rendering budget for Fortnite running at 60fps on consoles.” Let’s give ourselves a moment for that to sink in.
Fortnite is an incredibly well-optimised game, all things considered. Along with other Esports titles like League of Legends and CS:GO, it’s one of those games that can be used as a litmus test for lower-specced gaming rigs. If you have an entry-level build, you should be able to play a game like Fortnite – you don’t need one of the very best graphics cards or the best gaming CPU around to play it.
That’s one thing that makes UE5 so exciting. If it’s true that running the UE5 demo only took the “geometry rendering budget” of Fortnite at 60fps on console, we might be in store for a game engine that really gives lower-end hardware something to work with. Sure, geometry rendering isn’t the be-all and end-all of GPU gruntwork, and the GPU isn’t the only component relevant to gaming performance, but geometry rendering certainly takes up a fair chunk of the graphics pipeline, and the GPU is the single most important component when it comes to gaming performance.
This is all in context of UE5’s ‘Nanite’, the engine’s geometry system that’s intended to help create photorealistic objects all the way up to the horizon. It does this by using millions or billions of pixel-sized, virtualised micropolygons to form the geometry of a game scene, but then downscales the detail to match the specific device it’s running on and the detail that’s required of different objects at any moment in time.
For example, as the player moves closer to an object it will stream more geometric polygons, increasing its detail – all this without the developer having to manually program objects to use LOD (level of detail) in this way.
Analysis: We’re moving towards software, rather than hardware, optimisation
It used to be the case that games were made, and then hardware would run it as well as it could. This is an oversimplification, of course, since developers would try to ensure games weren’t so detailed that they couldn’t run on mainstream PC or console hardware. And, of course, there were general optimisations made to increase performance, but for the most part, if you wanted to improve a game’s performance you had to pull back its graphical fidelity. It looks like this is changing.
We have Nvidia’s DLSS 2.0, a technology that uses an AI neural network to figure out what a game would look like at a super-high resolution while rendering it at a lower one. It gives the graphical accuracy of a high-res game while only requiring the performance of a lower resolution. We also have promises of next-gen’s Xbox Series X and PS5 storage technologies, and innovative ways of using this hardware to improve performance on the software level through texture streaming.
Now we have another example of how software is making the strides that was previously reserved for hardware. UE5 utilising this Nanite technology could mean games made using the engine are able to maintain a seriously impressive level of graphical fidelity without putting too much strain on the GPU and other components.
Things are no longer being left primarily down to the brute force of a GPU. They’re being handled by innovative software and developer solutions, ones that let the seriously gorgeous UE5 tech demo run its geometry rendering as well as Fortnite runs on console.
London – In September 2018, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, Arthur Herman, wrote a fascinating piece for this page saying it was time for Japan to join the Five Eyes intelligence alliance.
Moves to align Japan (and Germany) more closely with the Five Eyes framework have since begun but now is the time for a formal and completely full tie-up. The present five members of this long-standing alliance are the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and New Zealand. So Japan, with its very advanced communications technologies, would be the sixth full member. The alliance gives mutual access between members to intelligence activities, as well as promoting further military interoperability, creating powerful ties that the digital age both allows and encourages.
Behind this whole issue lies, of course, the overarching question of how best to deal with China, the rising giant — a matter that is troubling not just Asian neighbors but nations in every region, large and small.
Is it to be cooperation or containment? Collaboration or confrontation? It’s an increasingly vigorous debate, leading to deep internal divisions of views in many countries and regions.
You can see the visible ambiguity in American thinking as Washington zigzags from warm handshakes with Chinese President Xi Jinping and greetings one minute to trade wars and denunciations of Huawei the next, not helped by "who is to blame" arguments about COVID-19, quarrels about an inquiry and quarrels about what kind of inquiry.
You can see it, too, in Europe where various members of the European Union have taken completely different stances toward China, both in regard to geopolitical issues like Hong Kong’ future or China’s distinctly aggressive posture in the South China Sea, to more bread-and-butter matters like inward investment, technology transfer and 5G, not to mention, transport, ports, nuclear power and a dozen other areas where China has stepped in. In Britain, too, there are sharp divisions on all these aspects, Huawei and 5G in particular.
What has all this got to do with Five Eyes or Six Eyes? The answer is that super intelligence, cyber maneuvering and every kind of soft power messaging are the weapons of the future. If the goal is containment of mighty China on security fronts, but sensible cooperation on others, such as on trade, investment, scientific research and — especially just now — health and environmental issues, then it is precisely in these areas that this balanced formula can work and needs to work. This becomes increasingly obvious as China itself resorts to the dark and subtle world of cyberattacks and hacking.
The headlines may be filled with reports of warships, new aircraft carriers, unwelcome drilling rigs and artificial islands in the South Seas claimed by China (the infamous "nine-dash line"), complete with runways and combat aircraft — although some are said to be now crumbling back into the sea. And there is also now a thoroughly nasty, indeed horrific, spat going on between Indian and Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley in Ladakh, not to mention scary talk of Chinese military invasion of Taiwan, which would of course trigger a world war and leave all sides in ashes.
But Sun Tzu's "Art of War" is always the big influence when assessing Chinese longer-term strategy, and it states clearly that China’s strategic goals can best be achieved by non-frontal means, by spying and deceit, and by subduing without fighting.
As to what those longer-term Chinese goals are you can take your pick. Listen to some Beijing voices and you hear shrill demands for China to become a global superpower, eyeball to eyeball with an American-led West in a world too long dominated by Western institutions and laws — an ambition which sounds distinctly imperial, more suited to past centuries and from pre-nuclear and pre-digital times.
This is a scenario helped on its way by American commentators and academics, who love to talk about the coming clash of civilizations, the Thucydides moment and other apocalyptic scenarios. This is the path of broken agreements, endless border violations, stolen intellectual property, cavalier disregard for human rights and the rules-based international order — in short, where might will prove to be right.
Listen to other wiser and more cautious voices in Beijing and you hear the more moderate goal being merely to achieve some balancing up against long-standing domination by Western institutions, to keep foreigners out of what is deemed to be China’s historic sovereign areas and to share with other nations in peace and friendship — win-win all round with the "Belt and Road" initiative binding East and West, and even an eventual convergence of political systems and philosophies of governance rather than inevitable conflicts.
The strategic interest of the democracies is to make China see the wisdom of the second path, pursued moderately and lawfully, and the self-harming futility of the first one. And here the existence of an ever-more watchful ring of "eyes" to match and expose Chinese subterfuge, and to check China’s habit of soothingly saying one thing and ruthlessly doing another, is the best curb.
What the world needs is for China to prosper but not to bully. Now more than ever global economic recovery and international trade revival will be hugely dependent on an early return to healthy Chinese growth. But it also needs to guard against "overmighty subjects" to use William Shakespeare’s phrase, who could fatally disrupt the delicate balances of today’s network world on which peace and restored prosperity rest.
And to guard we need guardians. The Five Eyes alliance expanded fully to six would be ideally fitted to do the job.
David Howell
is a Conservative politician, journalist and economic consultant.
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) completed a month-long demo event that showcased a suite of long-range sensors, Air Launched Effects (ALE) and Scalable Command and Control (SC2) on its Gray Eagle Extended Range (GE-ER) Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS). This was the third in a series of demonstrations for the U.S. Army that were based out of the Yuma Proving Grounds dating back to November 2019. GA-ASI partnered with industry to integrate best-of-breed long-range ISR payloads and ALEs on the GE-ER. The aircraft showed a persistent stand-off survivability with stand-in capabilities with up to 40 hours of endurance that Army Commanders can leverage to orchestrate forces in the Multi-Domain Operations (MDO) environment.
“We set out on a mission to demonstrate survivability and capability to the U.S. Army through strong industry partnerships in a cost conscious and affordable way,” said David R. Alexander, president, GA-ASI. “The goal was to take the Army’s concepts and put the power of industry innovation to work to make them a reality. We are in the business of solving problems and ensuring the U.S. Army Soldier has overmatch on the battlefield.”
The third demonstration built on the previous demos as the GE-ER – in flight at 25,000 feet – identified emitters with Communications Intelligence (COMINT) payload and integrated antenna array. This configuration provided single aircraft geo-location and cross-cueing to the onboard Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) to produce precision coordinates sufficient for targeting within minutes. L3Harris’ Rio Nino lightweight COMINT system, capable of detecting emitters out to 250 km, was combined with GA-ASI’s Lynx® Multi-mode Radar with SAR to perform the task. Additionally, the GE-ER gathered Electronic Intelligence (ELINT) using a Sierra Nevada Small SWAP Auto-ELINT (SSAE) system. The ELINT detections were cross-cued to the Lynx® SAR for rapid processing of target identification and targeting coordinates.
GA-ASI also conducted the first-ever launch and control of ALEs from the GE-ER. The ALEs were launched and controlled through the GE-ER and provided real-time full-motion video to simulated ground forces over a Tactical Scalable Mobile (TSM) network. This successful teaming between GA-ASI’s GE-ER and Area-I’s Altius-600 ALEs is a significant innovation milestone that demonstrates capability required for the future battlefield.
The GE-ER also acted as a Tactical Scalable Mobile Ad-hoc Networking node, relaying voice and data to displaced users during the demonstration. All flight activities (including preflight, taxi, mission profiles and landing) were controlled from a GA-ASI laptop-based SC2 system. GA-ASIs SC2 system reduced emplacement and mission launch timelines by 75% from the currently-fielded Ground Control Station.
GE-ER is a long-range variant of the U.S. Army’s MQ-1C Gray Eagle UAS. It provides the U.S. Army with increased endurance and more payload capacity to support future mission tasking with considerable improvements in system reliability and maintainability. GA-ASI continues modernization in both aircraft reliability and mission effectiveness. The next milestone that GA-ASI will accomplish is flight testing of the 200 HP Enhanced Heavy Fuel Engine and dual 7.5kw brushless generators. GA-ASI will continue the demo series next year to advance the aircraft and its payloads to meet the emerging needs of the U.S. Army.
Work progresses at 19 Duncan Street for the mixed-use project in Toronto by Westbank Corporation and Allied Properties REIT.
The construction manager is EllisDon Corp. and the work includes some demolition of the heritage-designated Southam Press Building with renovations to add office space and a new mixed-use tower containing 10 storeys of office space that will be occupied by Thomson Reuters with a 49-storey rental tower above and four levels of underground parking. Amenities will include a health club, a restaurant and retail at ground level. The project was designed by Hariri Pontarini Architects. Consultants are: Jablonsky, Ast & Partners (structural); Reinbold Engineering Group (mechanical); Nemetz & Associates Ltd. (electrical); and ERA Architects Inc. (heritage). Subtrades include: Rafat General Contracting; GFL; Ontario Cutting and Coring; and Verdi.
Synechron is proud to share in the success of the launch of the brand new Calypso implementation for SIX, the Swiss financial services provider that also operates the Swiss Stock Exchange. Synechron was chosen as systems integrator in collaboration with Calypso for the Swiss Stock Exchange’s SFR (Securities Finance Renewal) project which aims to modernize the post-trade services process that the exchange, as a triparty agent, offers its clients.
This innovative project (the first Calypso implementation to manage a triparty agent activity) is divided into two phases and delivery on 15 June 2020 marks the end of phase 1.
The project includes teams from SIX, Calypso and Synechron working in close collaboration and with Synechron notably using its European Delivery Center in Novi Sad (Serbia) to provide some of the team members.
« As a certified Calypso partner, Synechron gave us access to its considerable expertise and knowledge of Calypso’s methodologies and best practices and a strong working relationship with the vendor, which was a key success factor for this extremely important project » explained Nerin Demir, Head of Securities Finance & Market Data at SIX.
A full and innovative implementation
From the outset, Synechron and Calypso consultants were present at all stages of the project: development, implementation, test campaigns with clients, launch and production support. This teamwork made agile delivery of the Calypso implementation possible, using development and configuration best practices to ensure easy maintenance of the platform for SIX.
In addition to the development and configuration teams, Synechron also set up a dedicated quality team in Serbia, allowing the other consultants to focus on the project’s business aspects. Synechron also participated in some front-end web development for external users.
Commenting on the launch, Valerio Roncone, Head Future Business, Securities & Exchanges, SIX said:
« The collateral management process has – until now – been fragmented and unwieldly for many stakeholders. With our new Triparty Agent, we have created a hub that will harness the power of automation and intelligent data usage to give repo professionals, traders, treasury professionals, and other stakeholders full control over their collateral. Through this technology, manual tasks like monitoring and adjusting will no longer require attention, and professionals can focus on what matters: driving efficiency, accountability, and accuracy. »
Key success factors
One of the project’s key factors for success is the close collaboration between the three companies: SIX, Calypso and Synechron. Also, for the integrator and vendor, working hand in hand is crucial when it comes to solving problems that inevitably arise in such a major project.
Synechron’s Calypso Center of Excellence was also made available for essential training to onboard new starters. Regular short-distance trips between Zurich and Serbia and daily video-conferencing sessions with no time difference helped develop team spirit rapidly among all the participants.
« We, together with the Swiss Stock Exchange and backed by our partner Calypso, are very proud to have contributed to the success of this innovative and major project for the Swiss financial infrastructure. The project combines all our financial software implementation expertise acquired over the years. We are confident and excited about phase 2 of the project which has already begun » added François-Bernard Mizrahi, Managing Director of Synechron.
About SIX
SIX operates and develops infrastructure services in the Securities & Exchanges, Banking Services and Financial Information business units with the aim of raising efficiency, quality and innovative capacity across the entire value chain of the Swiss financial center. The company is owned by its users (122 banks). With a workforce of some 2,600 employees and a presence in 20 countries, it generated operating income of CHF 1.13 billion and Group net profit of CHF 120.5 million in 2019.
The Swiss Stock Exchange combines the dynamism of Europe’s 2nd biggest stock exchange* with the stability and reliability of one of the industry’s most respected post-trade service providers. Covering the entire securities value chain, The Swiss Stock Exchange is your single source for Listing, Trading and Post-Trade services, as well as the gateway to the future of value exchange with the SIX Digital Exchange.
It offers outstanding liquidity in trading of Swiss securities and connects companies from around the world with international investors and trading participants. The Swiss Stock Exchange blends the geographical advantages of the Swiss financial center with world-class services making it the ideal listing location for companies of every origin, size and sector.
The Swiss Stock Exchange offers comprehensive services in the areas of securities trading, clearing, settlement, Swiss & international custody, securities finance, collateral management and tax services. The Swiss Stock Exchange is part of SIX which also owns the Spanish BME and provides global financial information and Swiss banking services.
*By free float market cap as at 1 April 2020
About Synechron
Synechron is a leading Digital IT Consulting firm for financial services, Accelerating Digital for financial institutions by providing innovative solutions to the financial services industry through its three main business focus areas: digital, business consulting, and technology. Based in New York, the company has 18 offices around the globe, with over 8,000 employees producing over $500+M in annual revenue. For more information please visit the our LinkedIn community.
LOS ANGELES—General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI) successfully demonstrated the first launch and control of small, air-dropped unmanned aircraft systems, or Air Launched Effects (ALE), from an...
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Six Lancers Named to VaSID Academic All-State Team
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FARMVILLE, Va. – Six Longwood student-athletes representing five different programs were honored for their academic and athletic achievements in June with recognition on the Virginia Sports Information Directors (VaSID) Academic All-State Team.
Longwood's six-player contingent included women's lacrosse seniors Corri Calandra and Dana Joss, baseball senior Nathan Iskowitz, men's soccer senior Chase Quinn, women's soccer junior Carrie Reaver and men's golf senior Teagan Stephenson. The five seniors all received their bachelor's degrees from Longwood this past May, while Reaver concluded her junior year. The academic all-state awards are the second straight for both Joss and Stephenson, who appeared on the 2018-19 team as well.
Those six Lancers were named to a roster of the top performing student-athletes in the Commonwealth of Virginia alongside selections from more than 30 academic institutions from the Commonwealth. To be eligible for the VaSID Academic All-State Team, a student-athlete must have at least a 3.25 cumulative grade point average and be of at least sophomore academic standing.
Calandra, Iskowitz, Joss, Quinn, Reaver and Stephenson all own GPAs above the 3.50 threshold for their academic careers, with Joss and Reaver both holding perfect marks of 4.00. That unblemished academic resume for Joss earned her co-valedictorian status of Longwood's 2020 graduating class, marking the second straight year and third time in the past six years that a Longwood student-athlete has won or shared valedictorian honors.
All six Lancers on this year's academic squad represented different academic programs and areas of study at Longwood. Calandra graduated with a degree in chemistry, Iskowitz in kinesiology, Joss in history/pre-law, Quinn in business administration, Reaver in biology and Stephenson in computer science.
Calandra was an All-Big South defender for the women's lacrosse team and graduated with a 3.99 grade point average in chemistry. She started 54 games in her four-year career and received one of the Longwood athletics' department's most prestigious awards in 2020 when she was selected winner of the Jimmy M. Yarbrough Inspiration Award. That honor punctuated a standout career in which she was perennially among Longwood's annual leaders in ground balls and caused turnovers and entered her senior season as a Big South Preseason All-Conference selection.
Iskowitz was a four-year catcher on the Longwood baseball program and posted a 3.54 GPA as a kinesiology major. A former walk-on who earned a scholarship prior to his senior season, he played in 60 games during his career. The first hit of his career was a two-run double in only the second game of his freshman season against Charleston Southern, and he went on to tag four of his 16 career hits for extra bases.
Joss' academic resume continues to grow even after her graduation, with the VaSID Academic All-State Team award adding to a list that already includes Academic All-America, Big South Christenberry Award, and Longwood University co-valedictorian. With her 4.00 GPA as a history/pre-law major and All-Big South credentials, she became only the second Lancer student-athlete to be named an Academic All-American. That honor accentuated a four-year career that saw her emerge as a four-year starter for the Longwood women's lacrosse team. In 2019 she earned All-Big South honors after ranking among the league's top 10 in assists, points, game-winning goals, draw controls and caused turnovers to help the Lancers to a program-record second-place finish in the Big South standings. Joss also held multiple executive roles on the Longwood Student Athlete Advisory Committee, including president.
Quinn's Academic All-State recognition marks the second time the Lancer defender has received all-academic attention after earning placement on the Big South All-Academic Team in 2018. Quinn, a Business administration graduate this past spring, graduated with a 3.585 GPA during a career in which he suited up for 30 matches with 12 starts and more than 1,380 minutes on the pitch. He logged eight of those starts during a senior season that he capped off his senior season with two goals, both on the road in league play against Gardner-Webb and Radford. The senior was an intricate part of the Lancer defense in his final season in the blue and white, recording a career-high 809 minutes of action.
Reaver's VaSID Academic All-State recognition is the latest honor in a decorated junior year that has also seen her named Big South Women's Soccer Scholar-Athlete of the Year and CoSIDA Academic All-District III. The biology major boasts a perfect 4.00 GPA and is coming off of her sixth consecutive President's List selection, all while emerging as one of the top defenders in the Big South Conference. The former Big South Freshman of the Year received her second straight All-Big South nod in 2019, being named to the second team after once again elevating Longwood's defense to the top tier of the conference. She finished second on the team with more than 1,300 minutes on the pitch despite missing the final three games with an injury, which were the first three absences of her standout career. She also spent her 2019 summer interning at a hospital in Buenos Aires, Argentina, while also taking Spanish-language medical classes.
Stephenson earned his undergraduate degree as a computer science major with a 3.64 grade point average, the highest individual mark of Longwood's graduating student-athletes. As a four-year starter, he led Longwood in scoring in 2019-20, averaging 71.72 across 18 rounds to cap a four-year career in which he shaved nearly five strokes off his average since his freshman season. In total, Stephenson ranked fourth in the conference in top-10 finishes, and third in the Big South in scoring averages, helping his Longwood team average the third-best team average-round score in the conference (291.50). The senior was also named a Division I Srixon/Cleveland Golf All-America Scholar, a member of the 2019-20 Big South All-Academic team, and the VaSID Academic All-State team in 2019.
Multi-Domain Operations, or All Domain Operations, envisions a new collaboration across land, sea, air, space, and cyberspace (Army graphic)
WASHINGTON: The Air Force is working to bring its Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS) to Europe this spring as it searches for ways to integrate allies into plans for All-Domain Operations, says Gen. Jeffrey Harrigian, commander of Air Forces Europe and Africa.
“We’ve been planning on leveraging a Spring ’21 exercise here in Europe to bring in some capabilities that would allow us to work through, I’ll use the term ‘layered ISR’ capabilities,” he told the Mitchell Institute today.
Harringian said that US allies are “very interested” in US ideas about All-Domain Operations. “Clearly, they are looking — to use in my words — ‘see themselves’ in JADC2 and how do they fit in.” This includes considering how enabling sensors, such as ground-based radar, owned by some allies that already provide data to NATO might be integrated. It also includes how to link allied F-35 Joint Strike Fighters into US Air Forces that ultimately will be using ABMS.
“They’re looking to …understand the concept,” he said. “What we need to do is continue to turn PowerPoints into action” — that is, operationalize the concept so that allies can “get a better sense and feel of it.”
The idea is to test ABMS-developed software to speed transfer of sensor data to a variety of “shooters” in the European theater in a manner that allowed allies to be involved, he explained. “We are working through who and what that might mean, and at this point, I don’t have that locked down yet.”
Harrigian did not specify which European-based exercise he was referring to, and neither USAFE nor Air Force public affairs officials could be reached for comment by press time.
Harrigian said it is crucial that allies not only be technologically capable of linking with US forces via the overarching Joint All Domain Command and Control (JADC2) network for managing all-domain battle, but also that they be involved in development of concepts and plans, to allow them to decide where and how they can best contribute. You can’t just bring them in in execution and go: ‘Hey we built the plan, so sorry, just do what we told you.”
Harrigian said that one of the keys to making this happen will be working around the security and secrecy protocols that have so often in the past presented major hurdles during joint US-allied operations.
ABMS construct
“One of the things we got to push on hard is the security part of it,” he stressed. “We can find ways to do it that — without getting into all the classification details — there are ways to bring them in the tent, get them what they need to know, and allow them to be key participants from planning, through execution and then the debrief,” he added.
As Breaking D readers know, the next ABMS On-Ramp exercise is being planned for Aug. 30-Sept. 4, with Nellis AFB in Nevada serving as the coordination center. The exercise will, like the first one this past December, involve Northern Command but be focused on a scenario requiring forces to support Space Command in battling an attack on US space assets.
Harrigian noted that he hopes that some of the software development techniques and technologies to speed sensor-to-shooter timelines demonstrated during the next On-Ramp will be ready for integration with the Air Operations Centers in Europe.
“We are working closely with the Headquarters Air Force team, and AFWIC to fine tune the specifics of those capabilities that we would like to leave behind,” he said. (AFWIC is the Air Force Warfighting Integration Capability office that seeks to pinpoint new areas of investment to help rapidly bring all-domain capabilities to warfighters.)
In addition, Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. John Hyten told Colin back in February that the Joint Staff is organizing a third Global Integrated Exercise (GIE) specifically designed to test out ADO concepts for this fall.The GIEs, launched by previous JCS Chair Gen. Joe Dunford, involve all the Combatant Commands, the National Security Council and other top national security leaders, and are focused on fighting Russia and China. Two GIEs were held last year, one in the spring and one in the fall, Hyten said.
NEW YORK, June 15, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BrainBit, Inc, a Silicon Valley and NYC-based tech company specializing in smart wearable IoT devices for sport, wellness, and entertainment applications, has announced the launch of its Demo App for potential partners. The free app, available in both the iOS and Android versions, helps visualize and understand multiple processes inside the human brain, enhances meditation practice with brain insight, allows improvement of focus, play mind games, and much more.
The BrainBit app provides medical quality EEG data in real-time and allows monitoring of the current functional state of the brain (relaxation, concentration, or normal), set one of three available meditation levels, and analyze stages and quality of sleep (currently in demo mode).
"We've developed the BrainBit Demo app to show BrainBit's advanced EEG capabilities and software development kit (SDK) to our potential partners. BrainBit provides accurate real-time data and analyzes the brain for applications in meditation, education, BCI (Brain Control Interface), health and fitness, sleep, games, and much more. We are looking to expand our partnership base with this new app," said BrainBit's advisor Valeri Melekhov.
The mobile app also features brain heatmapping, quantitative and qualitative indicators of brain activity, adjustable scale, and a timespan for signal monitoring, and artifacts detection.
The BrainBit demo app works in tandem with BrainBit EEG headband. BrainBit follows the international 10 – 20 electrode placement protocol, with electrodes mounted inside the headband. Each electrode makes direct contact at the T3 and T4 temporal lobe regions as well as at the O1 and O2 occipital lobe regions.
About BrainBit
Launched in 2016 with the vision to re-imagine the way consumer and industrial brain-sensing wearables perform and feel, BrainBit Inc specializes in portable, smart wearable IoT devices for prolonged wear and individual use for sport, e-sports/gaming, wellness and entertainment applications. BrainBit was founded by a team of scientists and engineers that have been developing professional medical equipment for over 25 years. Monitoring brain activity with BrainBit on a daily basis allows for enhancing routine and building a more complete healthy lifestyle.
The rate of new COVID-19 infections in Arlington continues to drop.
Seventeen new cases have been reported since Friday, bringing the trailing seven-day infection total to 42 — an average of six per day. One new hospitalization has been reported since Friday and no new deaths have been reported, according to Virginia Dept. of Health data.
Arlington’s test positivity rate, meanwhile, now stands at just 2.5%.
“It appears that wearing masks, social distancing, and being outside have had a very positive impact on the area,” Virginia Hospital Center ER chief Dr. Mike Silverman wrote Friday in a public social media post. “We’re still seeing patients that require COVID evaluations at a similar rate to the last couple of weeks but this remains well below the peak volumes we saw in April and we did not appear to see a bump in cases as a result of the protests.”
“COVID is not gone though I know some people think it is. It does appear to be less prevalent,” he added. “We’ve even seen a drop in the rate of our asymptomatic screening patients which gives me a sense for the prevalence in the general area.”
One area of concern is what might happen as Virginia enters Phase 3 of the reopening on Wednesday, allowing more people to gather indoors at restaurants and other businesses, albeit with masks required.
A surge in new coronavirus cases prompted Texas and Florida to close bars last week. A few hours from Arlington, bars have been temporarily closing on the Delaware shore as employees get sick, and Pittsburgh is banning alcohol consumption at bars starting Tuesday amid a spike in new cases.
