The 1Password browser extension rocks!

The Complete Guide to Staying Productive Using Voice Assistant

This is an interesting article that combines a modern tech lifehack with a personal narrative that many of us are yearning for right now (near the end of 2021):

How to save time, get stuff done, and have fun with Amazon Alexa, Apple’s Siri, and Google Assistant

Tip: Google can read out loud almost any story on your Android phone

When you invoke the Assistant while looking at an article and say something like "Read it," "Read this page," or "Read it to me," it will give you an audiobook version of the content you're seeing. You can even try that with the text right here.

Read it

Enterprise Data Warehouses (EDWs): Economics, Deployment, and Maintenance

• AWS Redshift: the size and quantity of the instances required to handle ingest and workload must be predicted. 

• Microsoft Azure SQL DW: users must choose the cDWU rating that best meets their needs. 

• Snowflake users must determine the mix of storage and the size of the virtual data warehouse that best suits the needs of each business unit as well as for a dedicated warehouse used for loading data.

• BigQuery: customers do not have to plan and size the configuration to meet their needs. BigQuery is completely serverless and customers do not have to plan or adjust the supporting infrastructure.

Working Remotely

79.4% Employees surveyed are now working remotely due to COVID-19. 

91.9% Employees working remotely are happier than they were in the office. 

55.8% Working remotely feel more productive.

Record-breaking metalens could revolutionize optical technologies

https://phys.org/news/2020-06-record-breaking-metalens-revolutionize-optical-technologies.html 

Ask the Global 30

The following is an excerpt from an article in Portrait, an online magazine (link below)

(Interviewer is Yang Lu)

https://www.brockmanmedia.com/portraitmagazine-jan2018-global30

P: The annual question of 2017 is “What scientific term or concept ought to be more widely known?” Why did you choose this question?

B: Richard Dawkins' “meme” became a meme, known far beyond the scientific conversation in which it was coined. It’s one of a handful of scientific ideas that have entered the general culture, helping to clarify and inspire. This question recognizes that there were many terms that clarify and inspire serious thinking.

On the other hand, not everyone likes the idea of spreading scientific understanding. Remember what the Bishop of Birmingham’s wife is reputed to have said about Darwin’s claim that human beings are descended from monkeys: "My dear, let us hope it is not true, but, if it is true, let us hope it will not become generally known."

P: What’s your answer about this question?

B: I have no answers. The question is the answer. Or, a better way of putting this: I am the guy who stands at the back of the theatre and turns the lights on and off.

P: What have you learned from this particular question?

B: Some of the most interesting topics included: Mysterianism (Nicholas G. Carr), Confirmation Bias (Brian Eno), Affordances (Daniel C. Dennett), Common Sense (Jared Diamond), Deliberate Ignorance (Gerd Gigerenzer), Intellectual Honesty (Sam Harris), The Neural Code (John Horgan), Neurodiversity (Joi Ito), The Anthropocene (Jennifer Jacquet), Premature Optimization (Kevin Kelly), Naïve Realism (Matthew D. Lieberman), Navier-Stokes Equations (Ian McEwan), The Second Law of Thermodynamics (Steven Pinker), Effective Theory (Lisa Randall), Haldane's Rule of the Right Size (Paul Saffo), Epsilon (Victoria Stodden), Coalitional Instincts (John Tooby), Embodied Thinking (Barbara Tversky).