Moore’s Law Soon To Be Given Last Rites

Moore’s Law, one of the most prescient observations made about the increasing power of computer processors that has become accepted theory and practice for almost 50 years, may soon be no more.

Intel has made great advances with the latest Haswell processor

This is the news, that barring some sort of technological breakthrough, the practical limits on improvement of copper on silicon technology (microchips) may have already reached the practical limit of what can be achieved.

According to Moore’s Law, originally published in a 1965 research paper, by none other than Intel co-founder, Gordon Moore, the number of transistors capable of being placed onto an integrated circuit board doubles every two years, and consequently it was postulated that processing power also doubles.
Although something of a hypothetical back in the sixties, the theory was soon proven to be true, sort of, or was at least close enough to the truth that now iconic piece of thinking became universally known as Moore’s law.
Experts have now predicted however that it will be nigh on impossible to shrink transistors any further by the year 2021. That is at least from an economically viable perspective. While it theoretically possible to make transistors smaller and smaller, after a certain point the costs involved become exponentially prohibitive, and also begins to involve quantum mechanics.
Moore’s law worked around the idea that the reason behind integrated circuits were and would become more powerful every 2 years or so, was because there was a demand for ever more powerful electronics. However, getting around the problems that come with working around quantum physics would probably bankrupt any company that tried to do it.

An end to the future?

No. Probably.
Because as we’ve already seen, there are always possibilities and new ways of thinking. We’ve already gotten used to the idea dual, quad, and even 20 core processors in computers, where technology and economic limits of single processors has been bypassed by getting more done with several side by side.
The next step will probably see the extension into 3D, but unlike 3D TVs, this will probably work.  Current generation processors are essentially built on a 2D plane.  The next generation may see transistors being stacked on top of each other, to break through the barrier of the end of Moore’s law.
But as always, it will be time that tells.

Announcing SQL Server on Linux

It’s been an incredible year for the data business at Microsoft and an incredible year for data across the industry. This Thursday at our Data Driven event in New York, we will kick off a wave of launch activities for SQL Server 2016 with general availability later this year. This is the most significant release of SQL Server that we have ever done, and brings with it some fantastic new capabilities. SQL Server 2016 delivers:

    Groundbreaking security encryption capabilities that enable data to always be encrypted at rest, in motion and in-memory to deliver maximum security protection
    In-memory database support for every workload with performance increases up to 30-100x
    Incredible Data Warehousing performance with the #1, #2 and #3 TPC-H 10 Terabyte benchmarks for non-clustered performance, and as of March 7, the #1 SAP SD Two-Tier performance benchmark on Windows1
    Business Intelligence for every employee on every device – including new mobile BI support for iOS, Android and Windows Phone devices
    Advanced analytics using our new R support that enables customers to do real-time predictive analytics on both operational and analytic data
    Unique cloud capabilities that enable customers to deploy hybrid architectures that partition data workloads across on-premises and cloud based systems to save costs and increase agility

These improvements, and many more, are all built into SQL Server and bring you not just a new database but a complete platform for data management, business analytics and intelligent apps – one that can be used in a consistent way across both on-premises and the cloud. In fact, over the last year we’ve been using the SQL Server 2016 code-base to run in production more than 1.4 million SQL Databases in the cloud using our Azure SQL Database as a Service offering, and this real-world experience has made SQL Server 2016 an incredibly robust and battle-hardened data platform.

Gartner recently named Microsoft as leading the industry in their Magic Quadrant for Operational Database Management Systems in both execution and vision. We’re also a leader in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Data Warehouse and Data Management Solutions for Analytics, and Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence and Analytics Platforms, as well as leading in vision in the Magic Quadrant for Advanced Analytics Platforms.

Gartner MQs

Extending SQL Server to Also Now Run on Linux

Today I’m excited to announce our plans to bring SQL Server to Linux as well. This will enable SQL Server to deliver a consistent data platform across Windows Server and Linux, as well as on-premises and cloud. We are bringing the core relational database capabilities to preview today, and are targeting availability in mid-2017.

SQL Server on Linux will provide customers with even more flexibility in their data solution. One with mission-critical performance, industry-leading TCO, best-in-class security, and hybrid cloud innovations – like Stretch Database which lets customers access their data on-premises and in the cloud whenever they want at low cost – all built in.

“This is an enormously important decision for Microsoft, allowing it to offer its well-known and trusted database to an expanded set of customers”, said Al Gillen, group vice president, enterprise infrastructure, at IDC. “By taking this key product to Linux Microsoft is proving its commitment to being a cross platform solution provider. This gives customers choice and reduces the concerns for lock-in. We would expect this will also accelerate the overall adoption of SQL Server.”

“SQL Server’s proven enterprise experience and capabilities offer a valuable asset to enterprise Linux customers around the world,” said Paul Cormier, President, Products and Technologies, Red Hat. “We believe our customers will welcome this news and are happy to see Microsoft further increasing its investment in Linux. As we build upon our deep hybrid cloud partnership, spanning not only Linux, but also middleware, and PaaS, we’re excited to now extend that collaboration to SQL Server on Red Hat Enterprise Linux, bringing enterprise customers increased database choice.”

“We are delighted to be working with Microsoft as it brings SQL Server to Linux,” said Mark Shuttleworth, founder of Canonical. “Customers are already taking advantage of Azure Data Lake services on Ubuntu, and now developers will be able to build modern applications that utilize SQL Server’s enterprise capabilities.”

Bringing SQL Server to Linux is another way we are making our products and new innovations more accessible to a broader set of users and meeting them where they are. Just last week, we announced our agreement to acquire Xamarin. Recently, we also announced Microsoft R Server , our technologies based on our acquisition of Revolution Analytics, with support for Hadoop and Teradata.

Source: https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2016/03/07/announcing-sql-server-on-linux/

Microsoft expands Cortana support, features in new Windows 10 'Redstone' build

Cortana's language support is expanding with this test build to include Spanish (Mexico), Portuguese (Brazil) and French Canadian. Cortana also is now able to save new reminder information, such as the name of a book and to-do items without specific due dates (like "remind me to wash the car").
Today's new Redstone 14279 test build also provides a merged logon experience, combining the lock screen background and the logon screen background into just one background. For those with custom lock screen backgrounds, the lock screen will now be used for both the lock screen and logon screen.

Build 14279 also includes fixes and known issues, as do all Insider builds. Among the fixes are remedies to the situation that caused the Edge browser and Cortana to crash for users with roaming profiles. Cortana also will no longer show reminders that have been completed. Microsoft also fixed issues causing certain drivers from Windows Update to cause some PCs to bluescreen, according to today's blog post.

In the known issues area, Microsoft is looking into an issue I've heard several users report: Their Surface Pro 3, Pro 4 and Surface Book devices can freeze or hang and prevent inputs including typing and touch from registering. Right now, the workaround is to hold the power button to force a hard reboot.

Users who have Kaspersky Anti-Virus, Internet Security or the Kaspersky Total Security Suite installed may also experience problems, which Microsoft and Kaspersky are working to fix.

Microsoft released a number of additional Windows 10 updates earlier this week for PC users, Windows 10 Mobile Insider testers and for Windows 10 IoT testers.

Source: http://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-expands-cortana-support-features-in-new-windows-10-redstone-build/

IoT Adoption Will Reach 43% In 2016

IoT is greatly used by heavy industries like utilities, oil, and gas and less by service-oriented industries, according to a new survey by Gartner. All told, about 43% of businesses are planning to adopt IoT technology by the end of the year.

10 IoT Development Best Practices For Success
10 IoT Development Best Practices For Success
(Click image for larger view and slideshow.)

Adoption of the Internet of Things is expected to reach 43% of enterprises by the end of this year, with the heaviest users including companies in the oil, gas, utilities, and manufacturing industries, according to a global survey released March 3 by Gartner.

The survey of 465 IT and business professionals in over a dozen industries around the globe found these results:

    29% of survey participants are currently using IoT
    14% plan to use IoT by the end of 2016
    21% expect to implement IoT after 2016

That translates into 43% of enterprises and organizations planning to use IoT by the end of 2016 and 64% to eventually role it out. But for now, IoT is still in the minority when it comes to use.

"This is largely because of two reasons," Chet Geschickter, Gartner research director, wrote in a statement. "The first set of hurdles are business-related. Many organizations have yet to establish a clear picture of what benefits the IoT can deliver, or have not yet invested the time to develop ideas for how to apply IoT to their business. The second set of hurdles are the organizations themselves. Many of the survey participants have insufficient expertise and staffing for IoT and lack clear leadership."

Additionally, enterprises and organizations that are planning to implement IoT are concerned with figuring out ways to coordinate workflows and processes, while those that have hit the go button on IoT cite cyber-security and managing business requirements as their biggest challenges.
Who's Into IoT?

The industries that have glommed on or are planning to the use IoT are the so-called heavy industries of oil, gas, utilities, and manufacturing. According to the study, 56% of survey participants in the heavy industries are expected to implement IoT in 2016.

As for enterprises and organizations in service-oriented industries, only 36% are anticipated to use IoT by the end of the year.

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Part of the reason heavy industry is embracing IoT may be partly attributed to the way the technologies are being used. More than half of the survey participants, 52%, note they use IoT internally to cut costs, improve efficiencies, and bolster the use of assets, whereas 40% of companies and organizations apply it to improving customer experiences or pumping up revenue.

That, however, is expected to change in the future, Jim Tully, a Gartner vice president and analyst, wrote in Thursday's report.

"The survey shows a dramatic jump in focus on customer experience, doubling in nominal terms from 18% to 34%. This indicates that we can expect a much higher IoT focus on end customers during the next 12 months," Tully said. "In effect, IoT programs and processes will become competitive marketplace weapons starting in 2016."

Whether IoT is used for service industries, heavy industries, or other industries, the companies and organizations that use IoT will need to show a return on their investment to justify a large-scale rollout, said Gartner's Geschickter.

Some of the tech titans that have already embraced IoT include IBM, which last year announced plans to create a $3 billion designed IoT business unit and Cisco Systems, which is acquiring IoT cloud-platform company Jasper Technologies for $1.4 billion. The return on their investments should become evident as the years progress.

Source: http://www.informationweek.com/iot/iot-adoption-will-reach-43--in-2016-gartner-finds/d/d-id/1324558?

Office 365 New Feature - Delve

Delve is a new offering in Office 365. Delve is like My Site – for each user, it shows a personalized view of content from any location in Office 365 including yammer, recently modified documents from OneDrive for Business, files from SharePoint sites.
Delve prioritizes and displays the content in Delve based on last modified data and last viewed date and shows the documents in the form of Card like style.
To get started with Delve, you need to turn on the functionality from SharePoint Admin Center.
Delve is based on Office Graph. To enable Delve, make sure Office Graph functionality is enabled.
To verify Office Graph is accessible:

1. Login in to Office 365 Admin Center
2. Select Admin from App Launcher
3. From Office 365 Admin Center, select SharePoint from left navigation
4. This will launch SharePoint Admin Center, select Settings and then select the radio button - Allow access to the Office Graph

Once Office Graph is enabled, Delve link will be available in the Office 365 app launcher.
To launch Delve, from Office 365 App Launcher, click on Delve.

This will take you to Delve page.

Delve has the following features:

1. Search
2. Home
3. Me – Includes Activity and Profile
4. People
5. Boards

The above image is referred from this link.

How to Use Delve

Search – Use the search box to search for a person or file. When you search for a person, it will take you to their profile page.

This will give information about persons Activity, Organization structure, Blog, contact information as shown below:

Home – When you first click on Delve, it will take you to Delve Home Page. It gives a message to user “Give Delve more to work with” and a link “Learn More” which will take you to Delve help.


Me – The Me tab Shows the files recently modified by user. Me tab has the following two sections.

1. Activity – Lists all the recently modified files
2. Profile – The profile page gives profile information along with organizational structure

Activity

Profile

Profile contains a new section called Blog, new way to create blogs. These are not similar to SharePoint blogs. When you click on blog, you will get the following screen. Click on Start Writing to start a new blog.

It will show the following screen:

Click on New Post to create a new post. You will create post canvas.

Here, you can add a background image, Title, and Body. You can attach a document or image or Video also in the blog post.

Once you are done writing content, you can publish your post. This will be available in Activity section of your Delve.

People – Displays the list of people user collaborated recently. This depends on email conversations.
Click on any person’s name in the people list, it will take you to that person's profile page and display the content related to that user.

Boards – is a way to group related documents. Boards contain cards. Cards are nothing but documents. They contain information about document in the form of card like layout.


Users can create new Boards. When a new board is created, it will be empty. You can add files to these boards by clicking on + Add to Board button displayed in the card view.
Clicking on the title of the document will open the document in browser.
Card will also display the location where the document is stored. Clicking on the link will take you to the document location.

Clicking on Email icon will allow you to share the document in email, clicking on Share icon will allow you to see information with whom this document is shared and Yammer icon to discuss about the document in yammer.
Users can follow boards and share boards with others.
Boards respect data security, meaning users will be able to see files in boards only if they have permission to view the files. Boards don’t change permissions.
Mobile App – Delve can also be accessed from Android and iPhone mobile devices via Delve app. The apps can be downloaded from the stores. Delve app for Windows phone is not available.

Source: http://www.codeproject.com/Tips/1028264/Office-New-Feature-Delve

How to Turn on/off Tablet Mode in Windows 10

Windows 10’s Tablet Mode provides a more touch-friendly experience by making all applications run full screen and giving you a start screen instead of a start menu. When you switch Windows 10 to Tablet Mode you witness manifold choices like whether you want to automatically go to desktop or tablet mode or allow system to remember what you have used last or pass through confirmation every time and few more.
If you want to turn on Tablet Mode follow the below steps.

Step 1
Go to the start menu and click on settings. 

   

 Setting

Step 2
Clicking on settings opens a new window with many options. Click on System.

 

 

System Category

Step 3
 On the left side bar you can see many options, click on Tablet mode.

 

 

 Tablet mode under System category

Step 4
This will open up the settings for Tablet mode in this tab. Now, you can see a slider to turn on or off the tablet mode. 

 

 

Tablet Mode

Step 5
Now, I will point out some other settings with different headings. First option is "When I Sign in", which has three options

1. Automatically switch to tablet mode: Your system will automatically switch to the Tablet mode.
   
2. Go to the desktop: This always takes you to the desktop mode whenever you sign in.
   
3. Remember what I used last: Depends on your last usage.  

 

 

 Sign In Option

Select any one option as per your requirement.
Step 6
In Tablet Mode second option is when this device automatically switches tablet mode on or off, there are also three options

1. Don’t ask me and don’t switch.
   
2. Always ask me before switching: Every time you will get a pop up whenever the system senses the detachment of keyboard from the device.
   
3. Don’t ask me and always switch: Whenever the keyboard is moved from the device, the tablet mode will turn on without your confirmation.  

 

 

 Switching Option

Here you can choose any one as per your requirement.

If you don't want to see apps in tablet mode, you can turn on the last option "hide app icons on the taskbar in tablet mode". 

 

  Display or hide the app icons on the taskbar in tablet mode

How to remove unwanted Apps from Windows 10

Windows 10 has many new and interesting features. Previous versions of Windows required the Control Panel to uninstall a desktop program. You can now use the Start menu or the settings app to uninstall unnecessary Apps. Whenever we want to remove unnecessary apps installed in our system, we move to the Control Panel but Windows 10 provides an alternative for removing apps directly from the Apps and features tab in the system section.
The following is the procedure to show how to remove unnecessary apps from Windows 10.
There are the following two ways to remove unnecessary apps:

1. With the Start Menu
2. With Setting App

With the Start Menu

The simplest way to remove apps is from the Start Screen. Press the Windows key on your keyboard or click the icon on the system's screen. At the Start Screen, go to the app that you want to remove and click the right button of your mouse or track pad and look at the lower-right corner, the third option will be uninstall, click on it. Some apps can't be removed (like Notepad), so you might not see the uninstall option.

 

 

 

Figure: Start Menu

 

With Setting App

Step 1

 

At first click on the Windows icon and the Settings option will open the Settings tab.

 

Figure: Settings

Step 2

In the Settings tab there is a System icon. Click on it.

 

Figure: System category symbol

Step 3

After clicking on the system category icon a new window of the system will be shown on the screen. On the left side bar you can see many options, click on Apps and features.

 

 

Figure: Apps and features window

 

Step 4

 

This will open the Apps and features tab. In this tab you can look for for any app. All you must do is to type its name and it will appear on the screen by choosing the first option. You can also sort various apps by their name, size and date using the second option.

 

 

Figure: Search Sort and Filter the Apps

Step 5

Now, scroll down to the bottom to see all the apps running in your system. You can directly uninstall these apps just by clicking on them and then pressing Uninstall. The apps in your system by default cannot be uninstalled.

 

 

Figure: Uninstall the apps in the system window

This is the easiest way to remove unnecessary apps from Windows 10 and boost your system's speed.