How to Fix Windows 10 Slow Boot-up Issue After the Upgrade

Short Bytes: Google is the master of creativity and it shows in its methods of recruitment as well. Google looks out for people whose search habits fits in Google’s code book. Once assured of that, the company’s algorithm will ask you to apply for a job at Google. Check out how this person landed a job at Google just by entering a secret search.

Google has one of the most rigorous and byzantine processes of recruitment. It’s not that you don’t know of, you might at some point at your life wished or even prepared for a job at Google. But, here’s something you don’t know. You don’t essentially have to knock on Google’s door to get a job there.

Google looks out for people whose search habits fits in Google’s code book. Once assured of that, the company’s algorithm will ask you to apply for a job at Google. Sounds wild, right? Nevertheless, it’s true- the odds of a ‘secret search’. There were speculations that in the near future we would get hired by the algorithms, but Google has already started doing that.

Max Rosett, describes his experience in his blog, and how just by entering a few programming terms “python lambda function list comprehension”, he got into the recruitment process and ultimately landed a job at Google.

Max was merely looking for some information for his project in the computer science degree, and as he entered the secret search of python lambda, Google’s message popped up, breaking apart the usual blue linked result page.

The message read: “You’re speaking our language. Up for a challenge?”

Just like any arcade game Google gave the options of ‘I want to play’ and ‘No thanks’. Rosett went for “I want to play” option and then started a challenging series of programming questions.

The problems were time-based and required knowledge about algorithms. The Q&A round went on for two weeks at the page called foo.bar. Once Rosett solved the sixth problem, he was asked to submit his contact information and a couple of days later Google asked for his resume.

After that, it was a typical ride of hiring process like further interviews and HR rounds. Max finally got the call letter from Google and is currently employed at the Silicon Valley giant.

The questions as Max recalls were more interesting and challenging than those asked at Google Careers, the usual Google portal.

However, the mysterious page won’t occur if you try the same secret search as Max did. But, there are other pages as well, looking out for the chosen one, offering a job at Google.

You could be the next in the line for Google interviews, provided you type the magic secret search words.

New Tesla Car Scores Insane 103 Out Of 100 In Consumer Report Rating

Short Bytes: At the Consumer Reports evaluation, the all-wheel electric car Tesla P85D garnered an unthinkable 103 out of 100 due to a combined performance of a supercar and comfort of a luxury car while staying true to its cause of energy efficiency.

Tesla is driving the car market crazy. With its superior show of speed, safety and energy efficiency, the new Tesla Model S P85D has broken all the records to create a rather insane one. At the Consumer Reportsevaluation, the all-wheel electric car garnered an unthinkable 103 out of 100. Thereby, shattering previous set standards of perfection.

The new Tesla sedan displayed exceptional performance as it zoomed to 60 miles an hour in just 3.5 seconds, thanks to the car’s “Insane Mode”. The company, headed by billionaire Elon Musk plans to build cars with the performance of a supercar and comfort of a luxury car while staying true to its cause of energy efficiency. Tesla has always taken a stand for energy conservation and sustainable development which their new idea topowerhouses with solar energy reflect.

The new P85D with its freakish performance has made both its consumers as well as the judges go crazy. The car goes from 0 to 1.02 G’s in less than a quarter of a second, which is comparable to the human brain’s reaction time.

Wait, the acceleration game is not over yet. Elon Musk has released an even faster “Ludicrous Mode” that takes the car from 0 to 60 miles in only 2.8 seconds. Well, that definitely sounds ludicrous.

Elon Musk runs many projects including a space research organization SpaceX, that aims to revolutionize space expeditions.

Due to the sedan’s unprecedented performance, the Consumer Reports had to reassess its criterion for judging the cars on the basis of acceleration and efficiency.

The Tesla Model P85D has set the new benchmark for the upcoming cars. And that goes for its cost as well. The base price for the P85D is $105,500 while the test vehicle costs about $127,820.

This is not the first time Tesla cars have got reviews like that. Since last two years, the Model S has topped the Consumer Reports survey scoring 99 and 98 out of 100. Tesla has taken the competition to a whole new level this time.

What do you think of the new Tesla P85D? Tell us in the comments below.

BitTorrent Patches Flaw That Allowed Website Killing DRDoS Attacks

Short Bytes: Today in its blog, BitTorrent announced that it has fixed a vulnerability that allowed the attackers to take down websites by carrying out distributed reflective denial of service attacks (DRDoS).

Recently Florian Adamsky gave a presentation at a USENIX Workshop tell the possibilities of exploiting UDP-based protocols for DRDoS attacks. uTorrent, BitTorrent, and BitTorrent Sync use the Micro Transport Protocol (µTP) implementation in libuTP as the preferred transport backend running on top of UDP. Due to this, the attacker with modest resources could exploit a BitTorrent user unknowingly and drive a large volume of traffic to the victim to make them offline.

However, Christian Averill, Vice President of Communications and Brand for BitTorrent, tells fossBytes that such an attack has not been observed in the wild. He states: “First, it’s important to understand that this is a theoretical scenario and that such an attack has not been observed in the wild. Florian Adamsky and his co-authors conducted an experiment in a controlled environment producing the results presented in the paper.”

In his recent blog post, he outlines the fact that the BitTorrent engineering team has mitigated any distant possibility of such an attack. In another post, Francisco De La Cruz, software engineer on the uTorrent/BitTorrent team, tells how such an attack works and further explains the steps taken by his team.

Christian tells fossBytes that Florian and the co-authors reported their findings to BitTorrent team responsibly few weeks back and they have issued a fix to the torrent client.

He also shares an interesting point about the vulnerability in Sync. “Even before the recent updates to Sync, the severity of the vulnerability was reduced by a few factors. First, the attacker would have to know the Sync user they are trying to exploit to get their “Secret” – or the Sync user would have to have exposed that “Secret” publicly in some way. In addition, Sync, by design, limits the amount of peers in a share making the attack surface much smaller. It would not serve as an effective source to mount large-scale attacks,” he explains.

Having something to add? Share your opinions through comments.

Your Brain Is 30 Times Faster Than The Best Supercomputers

Short Bytes: According to the estimates by the Artificial Intelligence project funded by Elon Musk, human brains are 30 times more powerful than the world’s best supercomputers. The project is started by two PhD scholars and they have compared the results of the human brain with the IBM supercomputing beast Sequoia.

Some of us are born with exceptional talents. It could be anything ranging from superb athletic capabilities to being a maths genius. A 12-year-old girl from England who tipped Einstein’s and Hawking’s scores in the IQ test is a perfect example.

Humans have the mind power unparalleled to anyone in the universe, provided we are able to unleash its full power as advocated by most scientists. And now, we have the proof.

An Artificial Intelligence project by two PhD students from the University of California, Berkeley, and Carneige Mellon University will be the first of its kind to compare the human brain with the world’s best supercomputers. Elon Musk, whose subsidiary company Tesla’s electric sedan Model P85D recorded insane 103 out of 100 by the Consumer Reports and who is considered as a pioneer in technology entrepreneurship, has funded two for an Artificial Intelligence project.

The AI Impacts project aims to determine how fast the human brain sends signals in its internal network compared to a supercomputer. This is completely different than comparing the calculative prowess of the human brain and a computer.

TEPS or Traversed Edges Per Second is the way to do that. TEPS benchmark requires the supercomputer to simulate a graph and search through it, while for the human brain, they mapped the frequency of electrical signals fired by the neurons.

The scholars compared the power of human brain with IBM’s monster Sequoia supercomputer, that holds the third position in the world’s top 5 powerful supercomputer list. IBM Sequoia supercomputer has a TEPS benchmark record with 2.3 x 10¹³ TEPS.

The estimates through the AI Impacts are that the human brain should be at least as powerful as Sequoia in the lower limits and for the upper estimates, human brain could surpass the IBM Sequoia speed by 30 times at 6.4 x 10¹⁴ TEPS.

Now that means a regular human brain has a worth of about $4,700 to $170,000 per hour in terms of its performance while comparing with the current computer prices for TEPS.

So, what do you think? With the enormous potential untapped in our brains, we still be under control of machines?

Here’s the Cell Phone Spy Tool Cops Are Using Without Warrant

So everyone knows that the big federal agencies and organizations like CIA, NSA and FBI are the one indulged in the mass surveillance programmes. Here’s something more that you should add to your knowledge: your local police might be actively involved in spying activities too.

Today, the New Your Liberties Union (NYCLU) released some shocking records that prove the use of “Stingrays”- a cell phone spy tool that can track and record your locations. These public records tell that over the past few years, Sheriff’s Office has used stingrays 40 times and breached people’s privacy. Out of these 40 times, cops obtained a court order just one single time and thereby contradicting the true nature of the use of this tool.

In a blog post published by the NYCLU in a blog post, it was clearly mentioned that sheriff’s office signed some stern terms with the FBI to maintain the secrecy and privacy of records.

Raspberry Pi is Going Into Space With ‘Your’ Codes

Raspberry Pi will make its journey into space on December 15 with Soyuz-45S rocket. The Pi will run the codes aboard ISS by the winning team from the coding competition held in January. The Raspberry Pi B+ will be protected by the sturdy aluminium Astro Pi case set.

Raspberry Pi is a rage in the market now. As in February, 2015 it became the fastest selling British computer with sales of over 5 million in just three years of its introduction. The handy computer has been undergoing constant upgradation to meet the needs of its variety of users. And now, the Pi is going into space with a custom built armor to withstand the space hardships.

Astro Pi is a specially designed aluminium ‘case set’ for the Raspberry Pi which will make sure the economical yet brilliant computer stays safe in its journey to International Space Station and guarded by ESA astronaut Tim Peake. Astro Pi is a sturdy 6061 precipitation hardened aluminium alloy with loads of gadgets and sensors and acts as the heatsink for Raspberry Pi’s CPU.

The UK space organisations with ESA astronaut Tim Peake and Raspberry Pi had launched a competition on January 21 where students will devise and code their own apps or experiments to run in space. The winning code will be loaded aboard ISS, and the data generated will be collected and then available for download on Earth.

Here’s just one of the flight tests, in a mockup of the Columbus module. https://t.co/fPWjYthrpR pic.twitter.com/pUQ4sPadvg

— Raspberry Pi (@Raspberry_Pi) August 24, 2015

Raspberry Pi is making great strides in the competitive computer market with major brands now noticing its popularity. Microsoft just released free Windows 10 for Raspberry Pi 2 users.

A pair of Raspberry Pi B+ which is available for just $25 apiece, will be loaded onto the Soyuz-45S rocket for launch on December 15 as the final payload to the European Space Agency. The space trip for the Pi computers is a part of the Astro Pi competition.

The Astro Pi will run a Python program named MCP (master control program) which will monitor the running of the competition winning code from the students.

Well, this is certainly a big achievement for the humble Raspberry Pi. Did you participate in the Astro Pi competition?

Raspberry Pi is Going Into Space With ‘Your’ Codes

Raspberry Pi will make its journey into space on December 15 with Soyuz-45S rocket. The Pi will run the codes aboard ISS by the winning team from the coding competition held in January. The Raspberry Pi B+ will be protected by the sturdy aluminium Astro Pi case set.

Raspberry Pi is a rage in the market now. As in February, 2015 it became the fastest selling British computer with sales of over 5 million in just three years of its introduction. The handy computer has been undergoing constant upgradation to meet the needs of its variety of users. And now, the Pi is going into space with a custom built armor to withstand the space hardships.

Astro Pi is a specially designed aluminium ‘case set’ for the Raspberry Pi which will make sure the economical yet brilliant computer stays safe in its journey to International Space Station and guarded by ESA astronaut Tim Peake. Astro Pi is a sturdy 6061 precipitation hardened aluminium alloy with loads of gadgets and sensors and acts as the heatsink for Raspberry Pi’s CPU.

The UK space organisations with ESA astronaut Tim Peake and Raspberry Pi had launched a competition on January 21 where students will devise and code their own apps or experiments to run in space. The winning code will be loaded aboard ISS, and the data generated will be collected and then available for download on Earth.

Here’s just one of the flight tests, in a mockup of the Columbus module. https://t.co/fPWjYthrpR pic.twitter.com/pUQ4sPadvg

— Raspberry Pi (@Raspberry_Pi) August 24, 2015

Raspberry Pi is making great strides in the competitive computer market with major brands now noticing its popularity. Microsoft just released free Windows 10 for Raspberry Pi 2 users.

A pair of Raspberry Pi B+ which is available for just $25 apiece, will be loaded onto the Soyuz-45S rocket for launch on December 15 as the final payload to the European Space Agency. The space trip for the Pi computers is a part of the Astro Pi competition.

The Astro Pi will run a Python program named MCP (master control program) which will monitor the running of the competition winning code from the students.

Well, this is certainly a big achievement for the humble Raspberry Pi. Did you participate in the Astro Pi competition?

Startup Announces Major ‘Nuclear Fusion Breakthrough’

A small startup Tri Alpha Energy claims to have created a vessel that could contain a nuclear fusion reaction. The machine  is able to hold a ball of superheated gas—at about 10 million degrees Celsius and hold it steady for 5 milliseconds without decaying away. The feat if true, could be a major nuclear fusion breakthrough.

As the world cries foul about the environment degradation and strong protests to save the Earth, the leaders across the globe, even with the best technology face an impasse for the solution. Alternatives such assolar energy, tidal energy, and the apprehended ‘nuclear energy’ seem as the prominent answers but are yet to be unleashed at the full potential.

A small startup Tri Alpha Energy claims to have created a vessel that could contain a nuclear fusion reaction. The machine built by the scientists, south of Los Angeles forms and is able to hold a ball of superheated gas—at about 10 million degrees Celsius, and hold it steady for 5 milliseconds without decaying away.

The time might look insignificant to you, but for the researchers across the globe, it is a major nuclear fusion breakthrough. According to the team, the experiment lasted only for 5 ms because their machine ran out of power.

This is the first time that the gas has been held in a steady state in a lab at such high temperatures. Jaeyoung Park, head of the rival fusion startup Energy/Matter Conversion Corporation in San Diego says,

Until you learn to control and tame [the hot gas], it’s never going to work. In that regard, it’s a big deal. They seem to have found a way to tame it. The next question is how well can you confine [heat in the gas]. I give them the benefit of the doubt. I want to watch them for the next 2 or 3 years.

What’s interesting here is the design of the reactor. It is a long, cylindrical tube that collides pairs of plasma donuts to produce enormous amounts of heat. The resultant plasma is further stabilized with high energy beams. Check out the video.

If Tri Alpha Energy scientists can manage to increase the time and the temperature of the process, they could possibly become the first team to unleash the energy of a star here on Earth.

However, this isn’t the first time we are listening to a claim of achieving a nuclear fusion breakthrough. American aeronautical company, Lockheed Martin Corp came in the news last year when they promised energy via nuclear fusion to be available in next 10 years. Similarly, Boeing patented a jet engine last month that will be driven through Laser and Nuclear power. Both the designs are considered futuristic and a nuclear fusion breakthrough, but any updates on the advancement in their research is yet to arrive.

So, do not get your hopes high and wait till the results are substantial. Nuclear energy is the most polarizing topic today, thanks to the Fukushima disaster. Nevertheless, efforts should be made in the direction as this is our best possible hope for the clean energy in future.

What do you think of the claims by Tri Alpha Energy? Tell us in comments below.