Toronto Electricians and Electrical Contractors

After Patent Office Rejection, It is Time For Google To Abandon Its Attempt to Patent Use of Public Domain Algorithm At EFF, we often criticize software patents that claim small variations on known techniques. These include a patent on updating software over the Internet , a patent on out-of-office email , and a patent on storing data in a database . Now, Google is trying to patent the use of a known data compression algorithm – called asymmetric numeral systems (ANS) – for video compression. In one sense, this patent application is fairly typical. The system seems designed to encourage tech giants to flood the Patent Office with applications for every little thing they do. Google’s application stands out, however, because the real inventor of ANS did everything he could to dedicate his work to the public domain. Jarek Duda developed ANS from 2006-2013. When he published his work, he wanted it to be available to the public free of restrictions. So he was disappointed to learn th...

You Did It: California Net Neutrality Passes State Assembly After a long and hard-fought battle , one where you made your voices heard , California’s Assembly passed S.B. 822, the net neutrality bill. But we’re not quite done yet. In a vote of 58-17, S.B. 822 passed the Assembly. Now it needs to pass the Senate again. ISPs have tried hard to gut and kill this bill , pouring money and robocalls into California . There was a moment where that campaign looked like it might have been successful, but you spoke out and got strong net neutrality protections restored. But that hiccup means that, although a version of the bill already passed in the California Senate, it’s now different enough from that initial version to have to be re-voted on. We’re in the home stretch here. California could pass a gold standard net neutrality bill, providing a template for states going forward. California can prove that ISP money can’t defeat real people’s voices. So, one more time, contact your Calif...

Optimizing guest comfort and control with a connected hotel The Evolution Lisboa Hotel, a new hotel located in Lisbon, Portugal is not only a new facility but one that runs on a world-class hotel system and modern technology. The connected hotel attracts many customers who are fortunate to experience the finest comforts with great convenience. You might wonder what that entails – get this: Guests can control their rooms through their smartphone or tablet by simply downloading an app. This control includes room settings such as lighting, curtains, temperature, and more. But it’s not only the guests that have this sort of ability, hotel managers and staff can do the same from the front desk or even remotely allowing them to monitor and control the entire building. Managers can even access live reports and set controls based on occupancy. Rooms and areas of the hotel that are unoccupied can be partially disconnected to save energy. “We are able, in real time and anywhere in the world, ...

EFF To Maine, Massachusetts Courts: Rule Requiring Warrants to Access Cell Phone Location Data Applies to Real-Time Searches Cases Among First Since Landmark Supreme Court Decision in Carpenter Portland, Maine—The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the ACLU are urging the state’s highest courts in Massachusetts and Maine to rule that law enforcement agents need a warrant to access real-time location information from cell phones, a clear application of a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling from June. EFF, in partnership with ACLU chapters in Massachusetts and Maine, is asking the state courts to recognize, as the Supreme Court did in U.S. v Carpenter , that people have a constitutional right to expect privacy in their physical movements, which can be revealed in minute detail by the cell phones they carry. Cell phone use is ubiquitous in our society. People have their phones with them all the time, and the location information produced by the phone can reveal our every m...

How to Roll a Strong Password with 20-Sided Dice and Fandom-Inspired Wordlists Here’s the not-so-secret recipe for strong passphrases: a random element like dice, a long list of words, and math. And as long as you have the first two, the third takes care of itself. All together, this adds up to diceware , a simple but powerful method to create a passphrase that even the most sophisticated computer could take at least thousands of years to guess.  In short, diceware involves rolling a series of dice to get a number, and then matching that number to a corresponding word on a wordlist. You then repeat the process a few times to create a passphrase consisting of multiple words.  In 2016, EFF debuted a series of wordlists that can be used with five six-sided dice to generate strong passphrases . This year, we’re upping our game. At Dragon Con 2018 in Atlanta over Labor Day weekend, EFF will be testing new wordlists optimized for three 20-sided dice. ...

Do you use classical design or design thinking in your everyday work? Organizations have traditionally used both but rapid changes in technology are challenging these methodologies. How do you keep up? Computational design is the answer. What sets Computational Design apart is its ability to design for scale, real-time and on-demand.  Setting parameters with computer logic to test multiple designs, 3D modeling and visualization, testing and evolving designs all with the automation and processing power of the cloud. Computational design extends consulting engineers intuition and experience, setting them up for the next 10-15 years of innovative, insightful and personalized design.   The post Game-Changing Technologies: Changes in Computational Design appeared first on Schneider Electric Blog . Visit Toronto Wiring from Schneider Electric Blog Visit Toronto Wiring

Stupid Patent of the Month: A Newspaper on a Screen One of the oldest challenges in journalism is deciding what goes on the front page. How big should the headline be? What articles merit front-page placement? When addressing these questions, publishers deal with a physical limit in the size of the page. Digital publishing faces a similar constraint: the storage capacity of the user’s device. You can only put as much content on the device as will fit. If that sounds like a fundamental to you, and unpatentable, idea, we agree. Unfortunately, the Patent Office does not. They recently decided to issue our latest Stupid Patent of the Month: U.S. No. 10,042,822 , titled “Device, Method, and System for Displaying Pages of a Digital Edition by Efficient Download of Assets.” The ’822 patent adds nothing remotely inventive or technological to the basic idea of providing a portion of a periodical— i.e. , a newspaper—based on the amount of space available. The patent owner, Nuglif , makes an...

Google’s Leadership Still Needs To Give Details About Project Dragonfly: Googlers Can Still Help Earlier this week, we joined with Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Article 19, and 10 other international human rights groups in a letter to Google’s senior leadership, calling on the company to come clean on its intentions in China – both to the public, and within the company. A little background: it’s been almost a month since The Intercept first broke the story that Google was planning to release a censored version of its search service inside China. Since that time, very little new information about the effort, known as Project Dragonfly, has come to light. Over 1, 4 00 employees have asked Google to be more transparent about the search giant’s plans, but at an all-hands meeting executives only responded with generalities before the conversation was cut short . Google certainly hasn’t provided the public with any details, leaving many in the human rights community to c...

We knew who they were — and they knew us. I am speaking of our competitors; that is, the ones before we embarked on our digital journey. Indeed, before digital disruption started to take hold a decade ago, executives kept a sharp eye on their company’s close competitors. That meant regularly checking market performance and reading the latest trade write-ups of solution offerings and advancements. Back then, our shared competitive landscape was a known roadmap with clear markers, common trends, and consistent R&D efforts to stay ahead of the curve. Now, as all companies often face new technologies, demographic shifts, new rivals, new regulations, and other environmental changes that seem to come from nowhere, how can we avoid being blindsided? And, moreover, how can we capitalize on these changes? The challenges faced often begin as weak signals at the periphery: the blurry zone at the edge of an organization’s vision. As with any peripheral vision, these signals are difficult to ...

According to research firm MarketsandMarkets , from 2017 through to 2022, edge computing will experience a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 35.4% (from $1.47 Billion USD to $6.72 Billion). Increased load on cloud infrastructure, application environments that are not suited to the cloud due to latency issues, and the growth of digitized applications across industries are some of the main factors driving the edge compute momentum. Organizations that invest in edge computing will need to devise modern strategies for managing these small, yet important and geographically dispersed data processing environments. The approach will be different from the way traditional,  centralized data centers are managed. A large global enterprise, for example, may find itself having to manage hundreds or even thousands of these sites. Therefore, dedicating IT staff for edge support is neither practical nor affordable. These environments will require sophisticated tools that enable a very simple...

California Bill Is a Win for Access to Scientific Research In Passing A.B. 2192, California Leads the Country in Open Access The California legislature just scored a huge win in the fight for open access to scientific research. Now it’s up to Governor Jerry Brown to sign it. Under A.B. 2192 —which passed both houses unanimously—all peer-reviewed, scientific research funded by the state of California would be made available to the public no later than one year after publication. There’s a similar law on the books in California right now, but it only applies to research funded by the Department of Public Health, and it’s set to expire in 2020. A.B. 2192 would extend it indefinitely and expand it to cover research funded by any state agency . EFF applauds the legislature for passing the bill, and especially Assemblymember Mark Stone for introducing it and championing it at every step. A.B. 2192’s fate was much less certain a few weeks ago. Lawmakers briefly put the bill in the Sus...

In August of 2018, Modbus.org published the Modbus Security protocol. The use of secure protocols is a fundamental component in efforts to secure Industrial Control System (ICS) traffic. Secure protocols can mitigate many common cyber-attacks, including replay and man in the middle exploits. The new protocol will provide robust protection through the blending of Transport Layer Security (TLS) with the traditional Modbus protocol. TLS was selected as it is a well-known, widely accepted internet standard. TLS will encapsulate Modbus packets to provide both authentication and message integrity protection. The new protocol leverages X.509v3 digital certificates for authentication of the server and client. The protocol also supports the transmission of role based access control information utilizing an X.509v3 extension to authorize the request of the client. Modbus Security will utilize a new port – traditional Modbus uses port 502, the new Modbus Security protocol will utilize port 802....

When it comes to protecting people and equipment in low voltage (LV) environments, nothing is more important than having reliable circuit breakers  in place. Over time, circuit breaker technology has advanced in many different ways, including becoming more intelligent and more flexible. This has allowed them to increase performance and meet a broader range of applications. However, in extremely harsh environments, circuit breakers are faced with conditions that are especially challenging. These conditions can cause false trips or other kinds of breaker failures. In this post we’ll have a quick look at some of these situations, and the types of circuit breaker features you should look for to make sure they’re robust enough to survive any hazard. Circuit breakers that operate reliably will keep people and electrical installations protected, while operations run continuously and efficiently. Extreme vibration risks There are many applications where circuit breakers face high vibra...

Thinking about building construction brings us back to the notion of processes dominated by physical labour. This is because, till the earlier times, the motive of construction was merely to erect buildings. However, in the 21st century the time has come when the construction is focused towards gaining mass support of the researchers and technology-aided design. Building management system or building automation system have made it possible to automate operations that were done manually earlier. The functionalities added to the building nowadays were earlier a sci-fi story. The connected system can monitor, control and operate the building’s environment like ventilation, air conditioning, lighting, access control etc. This is made possible by cloud computing technology and Internet of Things that uses internet protocol to foster these operations. These buildings are characterised by as the modern day buildings with advanced technical support. They are capable of managing security fun...

The prominence of electrical systems in today’s day-and-age simply cannot be mentioned enough. The fact of the matter is that these electrical systems have gone a long way in ensuring that technology takes precedence in modern times. Without adequate safeguards to take care of said technological applications, it’s only a matter of time before this technology ends up failing society in the long run – such is their fragile nature. Thus, a pressing need arises among the populace to be provided with optimal electrical systems that can ensure a definite level of safety in the industries and homes. Only by doing so can one actually utilise these electrical systems without worrying about the potential ramifications that can arise as a result. It also helps promote a sense of safety, since any chances of short-circuiting or something else along the same lines can be mitigated extensively, if not negated entirely. This is where various devices come into play, that can help promote the notion ...