New Florence. New Renaissance.

An easier gluten-free bread

Gluten-free bread in general requires around twice as much water as wheat-based bread during preparation. That often makes heating more of a time suck, which can make gluten-free bread more expensive. More water can give the bread a lower viscosity, making it thinner and more watery. Bread, in general, should not be watery.

Ohmic heating provides uniform heating to all parts of the conductor, in this case a loaf or piece of bread. That uniformity, along with the quick-acting nature of Ohmic heating, could solve several problems related to gluten-free bread.

Popular Mechanics

 

 

 

 

 

Technology and my Passion: Karin Tillotson and Hiking

Every few years, I invite readers and colleagues to contribute guest columns in the series Technology and my Hobby/Passion. Over a hundred contributed in the last decade on their birding, charities, cooking, music, sports and every other passion, and how it keeps evolving with technology. Click here and scroll down to read them all.

This time it is Karin Tillotson who has been working in technology for over 30 years.  For most of her career, she has worked with SAP solutions for large customers such as Valero Energy Corporation and The Coca Cola Company.  She is currently an independent consultant specializing in SAP Data Volume Management.  She is a SAP Mentor as well as an ASUG Volunteer (America’s SAP User Group). Here she writes about her hiking adventures near home in Atlanta and in faraway places like the Philippines.

It is a bit ironic that I am writing about technology in hiking. One of things I enjoy about hiking is that it takes me away from technology at work! Many people may not be aware of how technology can help with hiking.  I certainly did not realize that when I first started hiking when I moved to the Atlanta area 5 years ago.  I had lived here a few months and had noticed how beautiful and green it was here in Georgia.  I Googled “things to do outdoors in Atlanta”.  One hit that came back was the Atlanta Outdoor Club (AOC).  This is a free social club that hosts outdoor events such as hiking, kayaking, biking, backpacking, etc.  Their events are categorized by a Difficulty Rating D1 – D7.  The main rating factors are distance, elevation gain and pace.

I thought I would try an easy hike first and checked their calendar of D2 events close by.  After the first hike, I knew I would enjoy this activity for a long time.  The people I met were very friendly and interesting, but, what really got me hooked was being out in nature.  When I am out on a trail, it is so quiet and peaceful.  The dense forest or rushing water of the Chattahoochee river blocks out all city noises and makes me forget about everything else. I am able to just enjoy being surrounded by the serenity of nature. 

When I first started hiking, the only technology I used was my Fitbit to track my steps/distance.  Here is an example of my stats for when I hiked into the crater of the Mount Pinatubo volcano in the Philippines.

The lake at the bottom of the crater is an acidic green color due to gases and minerals seeping into the water.

As I started getting more D2 hikes completed, I wanted to start testing myself on more difficult events.  This is when I started learning about how technology can help further with hiking.  I had found my fitness level was fine for distance.  I could do 5 to 10 mile hikes without difficulty.  What I had trouble with was elevation gain.  I wanted to improve this skill/fitness level so I started researching future hikes using websites such as Atlanta Trails and AllTrails.  These sites provide information such as trail mileage, map route and elevation gain. 

I also use the free version of the AllTrails mobile app.  This is a great app which you can use to research information about different trails such as length, elevation gain and read reviews from other hikers.  You can also use the app to record the statistics of a hike.  It will record mileage, elevation gain, average pace, etc. 

If you purchase the AllTrails Pro version you can download trail maps and use it to help navigate the trail paths.  You can also get notifications if you happen to miss a turn and start going off-route. For notifications of going off-route, you do need to be in range of a cellular or satellite network.  But, when you will be somewhere without service, you can download the map ahead of time and use just the map to help keep you on the trail.  That way you do not need a paper copy of the trail map.

I wanted to push myself, so I signed up to hike Mount Yonah.  This has an elevation gain of around 1500 feet.  But it was worth it to get this picture.

The toughest hike I have done is the Gahuti Trail which explores the beautiful backcountry of Fort Mountain State Park. BTW, Gahuti is Cherokee for 'mother mountain'.  The mileage was fine, but the pace and the elevation gain was definitely a challenge.  It was about 2,000 feet of elevation gain. 

There are plenty of gadgets to use for hiking.  When I went hiking on the South Island of New Zealand, one of the nights we stayed in a hut in the mountains with no electricity. We were told to bring a flashlight.   We had to backpack up the mountain.  It was a beautiful hike.  I also brought a solar lamp which was also a charger for my phone. I will be honest,  I used my phone as a camera - the work emails could wait :)

Another gadget is a LED headlamp for hikes after it gets dark.  There are lots of things to trip on like tree roots and rocks. And snakes! There are lots of snakes in GA.  When you see a snake, they usually avoid you, but I did have one unfortunate snake encounter.  I was in the lead spot and we were on a trail with a lot of switchbacks.  I turned on a sharp corner and there was a large black snake right in the middle of the trail.  It coiled up and was ready to strike.  I immediately tried to fling my whole body backwards (and there may have been screaming involved), but, I tripped over my hiking poles and ended up on the ground with the snake.  Luckily for me, it was even more alarmed and went the other direction.   The lessons learned were never be in the lead spot or travel without LED.

The good news is you should see much better wildlife than snakes.  There are lots of birds, turtles, and deer.  Here are a couple of fawns we saw at Stone Mountain.

Weather apps are also important for hiking.  If it is going to hot and humid, bring plenty of water and other liquids with electrolytes like a Gatorade. If it has rained recently, the trails may be muddy and slick so you will want to have hiking poles to help keep your balance. 

Knowing what the weather will be like is also helpful to make sure you bring the correct clothing items.  Rain gear has become quite compact so it is easy to fit rain pants and a jacket into your backpack.  If you are going to higher altitudes, it is also helpful to pack wind gear.  Wearing multiple layers is key for hiking so you can take off or put additional layers on as needed.  When hiking in New Zealand, the rain gear definitely came in handy so it was always at the top of my backpack. 

Speaking of backpacks, there are many options to choose from.  I chose one from Gregory that had space for a Camelbak hydration pack for water and a rain cover.

I am really glad I discovered hiking and have been fortunate to be able to hike internationally as well as here in the US.  I already mentioned the New Zealand hiking trip which I went on after speaking at The Mastering SAP Technology Conference in Melbourne, Australia.  Below is picture of me hiking in the Pyrenees in Spain.  I was able to go on this hike prior to SAP TechEd in Barcelona in 2018.  Both trips were another example of mixing hiking with technology… technology conferences that is 😉.

One of my goals is to complete Georgia sections of the famous Appalachian Trail. It starts (or ends, depends on how you look at it) at Springer Mountain in Northern GA. I will need to improve my elevation gain fitness level to do this and am sure I will be using technology to help me reach my goal. I did mention the AOC at the beginning, and I also am a member of a Meetup Group called the Georgia Adventures Group where I do a lot of hiking events.  There are many other Meetup Hiking groups in Georgia and sure there are similar ones near where you live as well. Hope this column inspires many of Vinnie's readers to adopt my passion for hiking.

Rapid-aged whiskeys

Distillers have tried and failed to accelerate the aging process since at least the end of Prohibition, when stocks of aged whiskey dried up.

Rapid-aged whiskeys are now popping up in bars and liquor stores and have even started winning awards, fermenting divisions in this famously fusty industry. They’re using sound waves, computer-controlled cycles of pressure and heat, and a host of new technologies to mature whiskey more quickly.

WSJ

 

Exponentially growing hotel chain

No, not Marriott. Bloomberg on Oyo Rooms

"Less than a year ago, we were mainly in India and starting to make a mark in China. We were the fourth- or fifth-largest hotel operator in the world. Almost every day we add 70 to 80 hotels. We will open close to 100,000 rooms in the next 30 days. At the end of June, we had 50 properties in 35 U.S. cities. Now we are close to 200 properties.

We were building the business in India, but we were creating a product that we could transport. We redo interiors much faster and more intelligently than other companies. We operate more efficiently through measures like a housekeeping app that incentivizes cleaning a room quickly and getting a high customer rating. We change our prices worldwide about 60 million times daily, maximizing revenue per room based on demand. Three years back we were growing at 60%. This year it will be 300% or more."

Amazon and quantum computing

Amazon’s hardware partners represent three different approaches to quantum processors, which are built from devices called qubits that encode data into quantum mechanical effects. Bay Area startup Rigetti uses superconducting circuits, the same approach as IBM and Google; Canada’s D-Wave uses similar technology to make processors limited to certain operations; and IonQ, a spinout from the University of Maryland, uses individual ions controlled with lasers.

Longer term, Amazon’s menu of quantum offerings could include quantum processors of its own. Simone Severini, the company's director of quantum computing and a professor at University College London, says Amazon is working on quantum hardware, but declined to provide details.

Wired

Here is a nice intro to quantum computing and the approaches different vendors are taking

Space Archaeology

It is highly specialized work. The tiny blips on the maps would mean nothing to the uninitiated, but to Parcak they provide clues that have led her to discover the location of 17 potential pyramids, some 3100 settlements, and 1000 lost tombs across Egypt. Parcak also used remote sensing to identify the location of the lost city of Tanis, which gained notoriety when it was featured in Raiders of the Lost Ark. The network of streets and houses of Tanis are completely invisible at ground level, and yet using infrared satellite images, Parcak was able to show the massive extent of the ancient settlement.

Parcak gave a hugely popular TED talk on space archaeology in 2012, and in 2015 was awarded the 2016 $1 million TED prize. She's used the money to create the citizen science platform GlobalXplorer, which allows anyone to analyze images from space in order to discover more lost archaeological sites across the globe—and spot evidence of looters.

Mental Floss

 

 

Improving Weather "Nowcasting"

Google has applied deep learning techniques, modeled on the neural networks of the human brain, to produce improved nowcasts for small areas (one sq km or 0.39 sq mi) over the course of an hour.

The new system, presented in a paper that has not yet been peer reviewed, is a significant step forward from existing prediction models, Google says. It can make accurate predictions in minutes rather than hours, which is much more useful when you want to know what the weather is going to do in the short-term.

That speed increase is achieved by ditching the heavy lifting of computationally intensive physics models, and replacing it with neural networks that are trained on historical data.

New Atlas

Image credit - Google Nowcast

Mars-inspired village on earth

While some companies are currently focused on launching travelers into outer space, others are dedicated to bringing cosmic environments to Earth for inhabitants of our planet to explore. One such company is Interstellar Lab, a Paris-based research studio that recently announced plans to build the world’s first space-inspired village in California’s Mojave Desert.

Dubbed EBIOS (Experimental Bio-regenerative Station), the terrestrial village will consist of a network of self-sustaining biomes designed to produce and recycle water, food, and energy for 100 people within the “closed loop environment.” Interstellar Lab has worked closely with NASA to create EBIOS, which when finished will include a number of space-settlement technologies to research how future generations could inhabit Mars, including plant growth systems, 3-D printing technologies, and tools for analyzing human behavior in a closed environment.

Afar

Lidar - not just for AVs

Self-driving cars employ lidar, a remote sensing technology using pulsed laser light the way radar uses radio waves, and lidar makers waiting for the automotive market to take off are courting new customers who would use the technology for everything from monitoring cattle to helping a disc jockey synchronize dance music.

Ouster, a San Francisco tech startup, is tapping new markets including delivery robots, disaster relief and even an approach from the disc jockey. Another Bay area startup, AEye, is talking to a bank that wants to monitor cattle growth to ensure the financial health of a rancher who is a loan customer.

British Herald

https://britishherald.com/from-dance-competitions-to-self-driving-cars-lidar-laser-sensing-technology/

Video shows how Lidar is helping archaeologists

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39ENPZ3Xe0I&t=163s

Technology and my Passion: Bill Hewitt and "Co-everything"

Every few years, I invite readers and colleagues to contribute guest columns in the series Technology and my Hobby/Passion. Over a hundred contributed in the last decade on their birding, charities, cooking, music, sports and every other passion, and how it keeps evolving with technology. Click here and scroll down to read them all.

This time it is Bill and Leila Hewitt. Bill had contributed to this series in 2014 on his skills at Artisanal Baking. We welcome him back and also congratulate him for starting a new job this week as President and CEO of Aternity. Previously, he was a private equity partner, CEO of Exari Systems and Kalido, and held senior sales, marketing and management positions at companies including Novell, Peoplesoft, Hyperion Software and IBM. Bill received his degree in Business Administration from the Boston University Questrom School of Business, where he was named a distinguished alumni in 2009.

Whenever I talk to Bill, I hear about his travels and his virtual management of teams, how he stays in touch with his twins in college, the myriad of domestic projects he is working on. This column gives you a glimpse to how he juggles multiple balls - collaborating on everything and with everybody using technology. He specifically talks about the fascinating scope of digital collaboration on a new housing project:

My wife and I recently bought a small summer home on the Rhode Island coast. We are in the process of adding more room onto the property, something we are not unfamiliar with, having build two houses in the past. This time, however, technology is playing a key role in speeding up the process through better collaboration with the design, construction and decorating team.

I’m using LucidChart.com as the amateur draftsman to create rough floor plans and elevations and share them with the architect. She in turn uses them to create AutoCAD drawings to create the full construction prints for permits and the structural engineers in addition to the contractor. Because there is so much information online, we can explore different green technologies (ducted mini-splits, hydronic radiant heat, sustainable materials, on-demand water heaters) and new technologies like dielectric mirrors, which allow you to make your TV look like a framed mirror or Samsung’s FrameTV, which displays museum quality art when your TV is turned off.

We set up Pinterest and Houzz Ideabooks to share ideas with everyone so they know the direction we want to take the project. Houzz gives us the ability to include everyone in the process, including family members.

The builder has a system to report on progress through photographic evidence using apps like Fieldlens (acquired by WeWork) which can be used to validate certain parts of the project and ask for feedback on materials, finishes in real-time. Fieldlens also gives the general contractor an efficient way to collaborate with subcontractors. The video below describes more of the app.

We will also source mostly of the plumbing and lighting fixtures online. We did this with our last build, sourcing over 150 items and saving 30% over retail. We use build.com almost exclusively, and never set foot in a brick and mortar store (with the possible exception of shopping for tile.) Anything that gets installed, lighting, kitchen appliances, light fixtures, carpet, tile all get sourced online. Our experience has been the customer service is substantially better. All of the trade work will be carried out by craftsman who live and work within a 10 mile radius, a commitment we decided was a great way to make us good neighbors in our new town.

The design time on our first house was about 4 months. The build took another year, and about 5% of the expense went to rework, mostly caused by misunderstanding or mistakes between the design/build participants. This one will take about 4 weeks, for design, 25% less in time to build and we expect less than 1% rework. With better design, the builder can discuss various options for heating, cooling, windows etc in advance, which in turns speeds up the building process. With more certainty upfront, the builder can be more specific with subcontractors, which in turn results in shorter project time and fewer errors.

Finally as a bonus, our security system allows us to assign individual pins to the contractor and subs, and we have mounted what is typically a field camera used for hunting to take 25 pictures a day to create a time-lapse movie as well as catch anyone who shouldn't be there. 

All of this technology helps to reduce errors, cost and speed project completion. It also allows many things to be completed in parallel vs a more traditional serial process. Good for everyone!