Is low-code safe and secure?
Think back to the early days of computing, when developers wrote their programs
in assembly language or machine language. Developing in these low-level
languages was difficult, and required highly experienced developers to
accomplish the simplest tasks. Today, most software is developed using
high-level programming languages, such as Java, Ruby, JavaScript, Python, and
C++. Why? Because these high-level languages allow developers to write more
powerful code more easily, and to focus on bigger problems without having to
worry about the low-level intricacies of machine language programming. The
arrival of high-level programming languages, as illustrated in Figure 1,
enhanced machine and assembly language programming and generally allowed less
code to accomplish more. This was seen as a huge improvement in the ability to
bring bigger and better applications to fruition faster. Software development
was still a highly specialized task, requiring highly specialized skills and
techniques. But more people could learn these languages and the ranks of
software developers grew.
The Real-World Advantages and Disadvantages of Low-Code Development Platforms
Low-code proponents point to what they claim is another distinct advantage: LDCP
technologies help businesses do more with less. What is more, they promise to
free skilled software engineers to focus on hard problems, on creative
solutions, on what they (i.e., proponents) call “value-creating” work, as
distinct to the types of recurrent, repeatable problems that MDSD and LDCP
technologies aim to formalize and encapsulate in reusable applications and
workflows. “We have four or five developers that … work in Mendix and they
accomplish more than a team of, no lie, probably 15 to 20 developers,” Conway
Solomon, CEO with Mendix customer WRSTBND, a company that provides
event-management software and services, told Kavanagh. “So, what kind of cost
savings is that? Especially as a small company that has a lot of ambitions,
where you know, like, a lot of extra money has been [spent] on payroll, you can
do it in a fraction of the cost and have the same outcome … if not better, and
so we use that to our advantage.”
Meta’s Yann LeCun is betting on self-supervised learning to unlock human-compatible AI
The more popular branch of ML is supervised learning, in which models are
trained on labeled examples. While supervised learning has been very successful
at various applications, its requirement for annotation by an outside actor
(mostly humans) has proven to be a bottleneck. First, supervised ML models
require enormous human effort to label training examples. And second, supervised
ML models can’t improve themselves because they need outside help to annotate
new training examples. In contrast, self-supervised ML models learn by observing
the world, discerning patterns, making predictions (and sometimes acting and
making interventions), and updating their knowledge based on how their
predictions match the outcomes they see in the world. It is like a supervised
learning system that does its own data annotation. The self-supervised learning
paradigm is much more attuned to the way humans and animals learn. We humans do
a lot of supervised learning, but we earn most of our fundamental and
commonsense skills through self-supervised learning.
How do we close the huge generation gap on flexible working?
There is a clear generational divide in where people want to work and how they
see the purpose of the office. For young people, flexibility is key. They want
to be in the office and connect and collaborate with co-workers face to face.
That helps them onboard, form working relationships, receive guidance and soak
up the company culture – all issues that workers have struggled with during the
pandemic, a Microsoft and YouGov study highlighted in December. The office is
often the vehicle for knowledge transfer between generations. But they also want
to work from home when they need to – to look after a sick relative or wait for
a repair engineer, for example. They don’t see this as a major issue, because
their view isn’t based on traditional ways of working in an office every day.
For them, the office space no longer stops at the office. They want to work
where they want, when they want. And they want their bosses to provide the tools
to help them do that. Last year, Microsoft’s Work Trend Index found that 42
percent of employees who worked from home lacked office essentials, and one in
10 didn’t have an adequate internet connection to do their job.
How Do You Identify a Successful Scrum Master?
The Scrum team delivers a valuable Increment every single Sprint. As a
framework, Scrum is focusing on delivery. Admittedly, this comes with many
challenges. However, if a Scrum team is not regularly creating value for the
(internal and external) stakeholders, everything else is of lesser importance.
(A secondary positive effect of regularly delivering valuable Increments is
building trust among stakeholders. Typically, building trust with them results
in less supervision, for example, in the form of reporting duties or committees
messing with Scrum—you get the idea. All of this is bolstering self-management,
thus making working as a Scrum team more effective and enjoyable.) ... Other
people want to join the Scrum team because nothing succeeds like success.
(People voting with their feet is an excellent indicator for Scrum Master
success, and it applies in both directions. My tip: Run regular, anonymous
surveys in the Scrum team and ask whether team members would recommend an open
position in the organization to a good friend with an agile mindset and track
the development of this “employer NPS®” regularly to spot trends.)
Knox Wire Introduces an Eye-opening Network for Global Financial Settlements
The Knox Wire system was built by utilising world-class distributed ledger
technology while further integrating artificial intelligence to facilitate its
efficiency. It facilitates security, information authentication, and information
storage on the network. It believes in the combined effort of its team to create
the global settlement network through extensive experience in the development
and finance sectors. Also, it holds professionalism throughout its interactions
with institutions, hoping to revolutionise financial systems through innovation.
The endgame is to benefit users, institutions, and eventually, governments. The
onboarding process for financial institutions is straightforward, involving the
beginning of an agreement with the platform. The institution will sign a
contract with the settlement network and set all favourable employees by
creating accounts on the Knox Wire system. Then, the network will provide AI
integrations alongside its API parameters to support all the processes.
Fintech Roundup: Due diligence makes a comeback and a former Better.com employee speaks out
We all knew – or at least some of us did, ahem – that this was likely not
sustainable in the long term. Investors appeared to be backing some startups in
part due to FOMO, and that’s not necessarily a good thing. So as the first
quarter draws to a close, it’s clear that while in no way have fundraises come
to a screeching halt, investors are starting to pump the brakes. Generally, it
appears we are experiencing a market pullback – which Alex touches on in this
piece – precipitated by a number of things, not the least of which – the
conflict in Ukraine and disappointing performances by companies who went public
in the last year. And fintech, last year’s rising star of venture, is not
immune. My former colleague, Joanna Glasner, at Crunchbase News published a
story on March 7 indicating that venture capitalists’ enthusiasm for fintech
seems to be waning as of late. Her data point, according to Crunchbase data, was
that in the two weeks leading up to her post, a total of 51 fintech companies
across the globe collectively had raised $1.1 billion in seed through late-stage
venture funding.
Ensuring safety of digital communities with next-gen AI and proactive care
Safety would be easier to achieve if there was only one type of problematic
behaviour online, but there are so many different categories in places you don’t
expect. It’s become more difficult for consumers to protect their privacy when
there’s so much software beyond the layperson’s understanding. Over a decade
ago, a Cambridge Analytica-linked firm abused platforms to deceive people who
held too much trust in what they saw online, swaying an election in Trinidad by
encouraging people to abstain from voting, ultimately leading to the opposition
party winning. It was made to look like a natural resistance movement, but it
was engineered through corrupt practices. Coronavirus disinformation online has
been a major battleground in the last few years. It’s hard to estimate how many
lives have been potentially lost because people trusted unverified sources. The
need for platforms to moderate user-generated content has never been more
severe. Schwartz points to the importance of detecting issues early, saying, “If
harmful online activity is left unchecked, its reach can grow rapidly and
fester, exposing countless users to violent, extremist, or misleading
content.”
Talent Shortage: Are Universities Delivering Well-Prepared IT Graduates?
Catherine Southard, vice president of engineering at D2iQ, says her company
hasn’t had much success finding new grads with experience in Kubernetes and the
Go programming language, in which D2iQ’s product is primarily developed. “Part
of that is because the tech landscape changes so quickly. It would be great for
a representative from tech companies -- maybe a panel of CTOs -- to sit down
with curriculum developers every couple of years and talk through industry
trends and where technology is headed, and then brainstorm how to bridge the gap
between university and industry,” she says. Southard added something students
can do is research jobs that look interesting, then see what tech stack those
companies are using. They can then equip themselves to land those jobs by
studying up on that technology by using free resources online or taking courses.
She sees another area of improvement in support for internship programs.
Historically, D2iQ had a program in the US, but it was expensive to operate, and
it didn't lead to long-term employee retention, except for a couple of stand-out
talents.
IT talent: Rethinking age in the hybrid work era
Never have an organization’s technical capabilities mattered less to its
long-term differentiation and competitiveness. The rise of accessible,
affordable outsourced vendors, SaaS platforms, and capabilities-on-demand means
that most companies have the ability to acquire whatever leading-edge
technologies and skill sets are needed at the moment. Leaders know the companies
that win are the ones that get the most out of their people and teams. Resumes
don’t tell us much about the skills that matter most in our current climate, and
the computers we “hire” to read resume keywords tell us even less. These
workers, having seen and been through countless configurations of teams,
conflict, and trends have figured out how to focus on what makes a difference.
We might learn more from them on how to spot and hire the unique capabilities
that real people bring to real-people solutions in our workforce. ... As our
work becomes physically less proximate, we need to find ways to seek out
guidance – not just in classes and courses, but in real time, from our
colleagues.
Quote for the day:
"Your first and foremost job as a leader
is to take charge of your own energy and then help to orchestrate the energy
of those around you." -- Peter F. Drucker
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