DEV Community: Amana Samsudeen

Block chain In a Nutshell

Amana Samsudeen — Sun, 09 May 2021 14:45:45 +0000

Before understanding what is blockchain lets try to understand what a distributed database is. A distributed database is a collection of multiple interconnected databases, which are spread physically across various locations that communicate via a computer network.
A blockchain is similar to distributed databases that maintain a continuously growing list of chronologically ordered records, called blocks. These blocks are linked using encryption techniques which contains a link to connect each block to its previous block, a timestamp, and transaction data. It is like a decentralized, distributed and public digital ledger.
Blockchains are mainly used to record transactions across many computers so that the record cannot be altered without the alteration of all subsequent blocks because the whole chains link depends on data in the nodes(blocks).

Why is Blockchain Popular?

Suppose one of us is transferring money to a friend from his/her bank account. He/ She would log in to online banking and transfer the amount to the other person using their account number. After the transaction is completed, the bank updates the transaction records of both persons. Even though this seems simple. These transactions are highly vulnerable.
These types of transactions can be tampered very quickly. Blockchain technology was created essentially to overcome problems of this nature.

So How Does Blockchain Protect These Transactions?
How exactly does Blockchain technology work?

Blockchain is a combination of three leading technologies:

Cryptographic keys (Asymmetric and Symmetric Cryptographies).
A peer-to-peer network containing a shared digital ledger.
A means of computing, to store the transactions and records of the network.

Cryptography keys consist of two keys those are Private key and Public key. These keys help in performing successful transactions between two parties. Each individual has these two keys, which they use to produce a secure digital identity reference. This secured identity is the most important aspect of Blockchain technology. In the world of cryptocurrency, this identity is referred to as ‘digital signature’ and is used for authorizing and controlling transactions
The digital signature is merged with the peer-to-peer network; a large number of individuals who act as authorities use the digital signature in order to reach a general agreement on transactions, among other issues. When they authorize a deal, it is certified by a mathematical verification, which results in a successful secured transaction between the two network-connected parties.
So, to sum it up, Blockchain users employ cryptography keys to perform different types of digital interactions over the peer-to-peer network.

IOT in a Nutshell

Amana Samsudeen — Thu, 17 Dec 2020 14:51:14 +0000

In the world we live in today, almost everything is connected in some way to the internet. The Internet of Things is a simple concept, taking all the things in the world and connecting them to the internet.

If we see a simple definition of IoT,
The interconnection via the Internet of computing devices embedded in everyday objects, enabling them to send and receive data.

What this simply means is that the objects around us which we use in day to day life has many activities to do and it has statuses. How amazing would it be if we could control it through internet? For example, say you have a fan at home, its connected to internet, and you too are also connected to internet. Then wherever you are in the world, as long as you have access to internet by any means you also have access to you fan in your room.

Another aspect is that, objects that we use in our day to day life emits several statuses and actions. So, when this object is connected to internet and to smart sensors. Then sensors can transfer data and information through internet.
IoT is not only used for personal needs and day to day life. They are also used in many disciplines such as healthcare, logistics, industry, farming, and many more.

IoT has the potential to redefine the healthcare system. The Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) is virtually the collection of medical devices and applications that connect to healthcare IT systems through online computer networks.

As the amount of connected medical devices increases, the power of IoMT grows as grows the scope of its application, be it remote patient monitoring of people with chronic or long-term conditions or tracking patient medication orders or patients’ wearable health devices, which can send information to caregivers.

If we take the farming industry, the sensors can collect information about the soil moisture to tell the farmer how much to water the crops, but you don’t actually need the farmer. Instead, the irrigation system can automatically turn on as needed, based on how much moisture is in the soil.
To wind up things, filling our earth with IoT is often thought of as “The 4th Industrial Revolution”, because of how impactful it can be. We should all be aware of the changes happening and the issues they bring, but also appreciate we live in a world where these kinds of changes are possible and are actually happening.

Will GPT-3 Revolutionize AI?

Amana Samsudeen — Wed, 11 Nov 2020 14:27:40 +0000

There is been a great deal of hype and excitement in the Artificial Intelligence (AI) world around a newly developed technology known as GPT-3. It's an AI that is better at creating content that has a language structure ,human or machine language than anything that has come before it.

What is GPT-3?

Starting with the very basics, GPT-3 stands for Generative Pre-trained Transformer 3 . It’s the third version of the tool to be released.
In short, this means that it generates text using algorithms that are pre-trained. They have already been fed all of the data they need to carry out their task. Specifically, they have been fed around 570GB of text information gathered by crawling the internet along with other texts selected by OpenAI, including the text of Wikipedia.

What can GPT-3 do?

GPT-3 can create anything that has a language structure which means it can answer questions, write essays, summarize long texts, translate languages, take memos, and even create computer code.
This is, of course, pretty revolutionary, and if it proves to be usable and useful in the long-term, it could have huge implications for the way software and apps are developed in the future.
As the code itself isn't available to the public yet access is only available to selected developers through an API maintained by OpenAI. Since the API was made available in June this year.

How Does GPT-3 works?

GPT-3 is a language prediction model. This means that it is an algorithmic structure designed to take one piece of language (an input) and transform it into what it predicts is the most useful following piece of language for the user.
It can do this thanks to the training analysis it has carried out on the vast body of text used to “pre-train” it. Unlike other algorithms that, in their raw state, have not been trained, OpenAI has already expended the huge amount of compute resources necessary for GPT-3 to understand how languages work and are structured.
It's also a form of machine learning termed unsupervised learning because the training data does not include any information on what is a "right" or "wrong" response, as is the case with supervised learning. All of the information it needs to calculate the probability that it's output will be what the user needs is gathered from the training texts themselves.

What are some problems with GPT-3?

It is a hugely expensive tool to use right now, due to the huge amount of compute power needed to carry out its function. This means the cost of using it would be beyond the budget of smaller organizations.
It is a closed or black-box system. OpenAI has not revealed the full details of how its algorithms work, so anyone relying on it to answer questions or create products useful to them would not, as things stand, be entirely sure how they had been created.
The output of the system is still not perfect. While it can handle tasks such as creating short texts or basic applications, its output becomes less useful when it is asked to produce something longer or more complex. These are some issues GPT-3 has.
Anyway it’s a fair conclusion that GPT-3 produces results that are leaps and bounds ahead of what we have seen previously. Anyone who has seen the results of AI language knows the results can be variable, and GPT-3’s output undeniably seems like a step forward. When we see it properly in the hands of the public and available to everyone, its performance should become even more impressive.