Category: Technology

Have some time?

paschmann

This single list of link has fueled a lot of reading for me over the past few months … The most counterintuitive facts in all of mathematics, computer science, and physics:

It is possible to compute over encrypted data without access to the secret key: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homomorphic_encryption It is possible to prove that you know a value x, without conveying any information apart from the fact that you know the value x: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-knowledge_proof It is possible to play poker by telephone in a trusted way which prevents cheating: http://math.stonybrook.edu/~scott/blair/How_play_poker.html If customers take on average 10 minutes to serve and they arrive randomly at a rate of 5.8 per hour then the waiting time for one teller is five hours while the waiting time for two tellers is 3 minutes: https://www.johndcook.com/blog/2008/10/21/what-happens-when-you-add-a-new-teller/ There exists a set of three dice, A, B, and C, with the property that A rolls higher than B more than half the time, and B rolls higher than C more than half the time, but it is not true that A rolls higher than C more than half the time: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nontransitive_dice Causation does not imply correlation: https://arxiv.org/abs/1505.03118 The Earth makes 366.25 rotations around its axis per year. (Related: 0% selected the right answer on this SAT question: Circle A has 1/3 the radius of circle B, and circle A rolls one trip around circle B. How many times will circle A revolve in total? youtube.com/watch?v=kN3AOMrnEUs) There is a surface that has only one side: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobius_strip It is possible to travel downwind faster than the wind: 

youtube.com/watch?v=jyQwgBAaBag read more

Now that the dust has settled … NFT’s & Me

paschmann

Understanding emerging technologies even if it is legitimately part of a consumer hype is something I have always enjoyed getting involved in. Like financial investments, buying the rumor and selling the news, is a mantra I have lived by when it comes to new opportunities. NFT’s as part of the larger Web3 stack were one of these hyped booms no different than the Metaverse and Quantum Computing, all hype, thanks to the media. Now that the dust has settled a little, the trough of disillusionment is set in, here are a few of my experiences and insights from my journey with the technology.

Most expensive NFT ever sold? EVERYDAYS: The first 5000 Days @ $69.3M

No different to the other emerging technologies, I like to familiarize myself with applications, solutions or use-cases that these technologies can offer through learning and experimenting – and based on my experience, needs or scenarios, how I could build something to help me gain an understanding – just enough so I can pitch it to my friends or kids 🙂 During the NFT hype I spent some time minting my own original artwork of yes, you guess it, the simplest of art I am capable of … stick figures. The process is quite straight forward, and if it was not for the cost (at the time around $200 per contract) I probably would have created a few more. My primary concern with NFT’s was, and still is, the value of “binary code” is $0. Thanks to binary, and the underlying foundation of computing, anything rendered on a display can also be copied, cached, downloaded, cloned and subsequently modified, in essence, digital art, graphics and photos are reproducible and it’s no different with NFT’s. There is no stopping you, right clicking, downloading and minting the exact same NFT from my artwork, sure it might not be original, but you could claim it is, and you may have a higher marketing budget to reach a larger audience, and I am out … Physical artwork is much harder, while clones, reproductions and replicas do exist, authenticity is relatively easier to guarantee to your buyers. How do art based NFT’s overcome this? Is there a solution in the near future? Is this only my concern, or a common one? Would you pay for NFT art?
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Apple Shortcuts Gallery

paschmann

Siri Shortcuts deliver a quick way to get things done with your apps with just a tap or by asking Siri. The Shortcuts app on your phone enables you to create personal shortcuts with multiple steps from your favorite apps. Shortcuts are powerful tools and easily shared.

The Apple Shortcut Gallery is a simple web application with a user created collection of Apple Shortcuts, or Siri Shortcuts. Start from hundreds of examples in the Gallery or drag and drop to create your own. This gallery is a way to share those you find valuable for others.

[This idea was generated by my previous manager, and I think it was a solid idea or concept to build, but I think internally to an organization, these types of applications generally don’t get or receive the attention they deserve.] read more

Open Source Project: Application Support Center

paschmann

This is another blog post of a series around the enterprise mobility IT team at SAP. We are an internal team focused on managing mobile devices, mobile applications, and developing custom apps for SAP’s 100,000 employees. I believe we have some unique stories, software, tools, and insights to help others in the community considering, or currently undertaking, some of the challenges which surround mobility and its adoption in the enterprise.


Introduction

As the enterprise mobility team, we manage over 100 different mobile apps at any given time. This includes volume purchase apps, consumer versions of apps listed in our MDM, and custom-developed apps. In my last post about Relay, our custom real-time chat application, we have seven different components that need to be managed and maintained for this single app (iOS, Android, Web, macOS, Linux, Windows, and Server). A good majority of our custom apps are similar, and have multiple components, all of which have independent release cycles and potentially different teams that manage them. We initially used an excel spreadsheet to track and manage these applications and their corresponding components. This became a logistical challenge as our portfolio and responsibilities grew. Our commitment to our end users also grew during this time, and we wanted to provide a consistent support experience across operating systems and apps. We took this opportunity to step back and look at the process holistically, and decided to redesign how we managed and supported apps that we were responsible for. We also defined some essential services and features each of the apps should have, independent of their platform. I touched on this in a previous blog, but from a support perspective each app should include: read more

Enterprise Mobility @ SAP – Conversational UI bot platform

paschmann

This is another blog post of a series around the enterprise mobility IT team at SAP. We are an internal team focused on managing mobile devices, mobile applications, and developing custom apps for SAP’s 100,000 employees. I have been a part of this team for the past six years and believe we have some unique stories, software, tools, and insights to help others in the community considering, or currently undertaking, some of the challenges which surround mobility and its adoption in the enterprise.

This post is also a follow on to the post about SAP Relay, our internal realtime chat application, if you are interested reading that post might provide some context. read more