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Maui and Using New Tech To Prevent and Mitigate Future Disasters

Because of climate change, they are experiencing far more natural disasters than ever before in my lifetime. Yet they still seem to be acting as if each disaster is a unique and surprising event rather than recognizing the trend and creating adequate ways to mitigate or prevent disasters like they just saw in Hawaii.

From how they approach a disaster to the tools they could use but are not using to prevent or reduce the impact, they could better assure ourselves that the massive damage incurred won’t happen again. Still, they continually fail to apply what they know to the problem.

How can they Boost their approach to dealing with disasters like the recent Maui fire? Let’s explore some potential solutions this week. Then we’ll close with my Product of the Week, a new all-in-one desktop PC from HP that could be perfect for anyone who wants an easy-to-set-up-and-use desktop computing solution.

The response to a disaster recovery should follow a process where you first rescue and save the living and then analyze what happened. From that, you develop and implement a plan to make sure it never happens again. As a result of that last phase, you remove people from jobs they have proven unable to do, but not necessarily those that were in key positions when the disaster happened.

Instead, they tend to jump to blame almost immediately, which makes the analysis of the cause of a disaster very difficult because people don’t like to be blamed for things, especially when they couldn’t have done anything differently.

Generative AI could help a great deal by driving a process that focuses on the aspects of mitigating the problem that would have the most significant impact on saving lives both initially and long-term rather than focusing on holding people accountable.

Other than restrictions this puts on analyzing the problem, focusing on blame often stops the process once people are indicted or fired as if the job is done. But they still must address the endemic causes of the issue. Someone who has been through this before is probably better able to prioritize action should the problem arise again. So, firing the person in charge with this experience could be counterproductive.

Generative AI, acting as a dynamic policy — one that could morph to address a wide range of disaster variants best — could provide directions as to where to focus first, help analyze the findings, and, if properly trained, recommend both an unbiased path of action and a process to assure the same thing didn’t happen again.

One of the problems with disasters is that those working to mitigate them tend to be under-resourced. When disaster mitigation teams devise a plan, they often face rejection due to the government’s unwillingness to pay for the implementation costs.

Had the power company in Hawaii been told that if they didn’t bury the power lines or at least power them down, they’d go out of business, one of those two things would have happened. But they didn’t because they didn’t do risk/reward analysis well.

All of this is easy for me to say in hindsight. Still, with tools like Nvidia’s Omniverse, you can create highly accurate and predictive simulations which can visibly show, as if you were in the event, what would happen in a disaster if something was or were not done.

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Is Hawaii likely to have a high-wind event? Yes, because it’s in a hurricane path and has a history of high wind events. So, it would make sense to run simulations on wind, water, and tsunami events to determine likely ways to prevent extreme damage.

The answer could be something as simple as powering down the grid during a wind event or moving the electrical wiring underground if powering down the grid was too disruptive.

In addition, you can model evacuation routes. They know that if too many people are on the road at once, you get gridlock, making it difficult for anyone to escape. You must phase the evacuation to get the most people out of an area and prioritize getting out those closest to the event’s epicenter first.

But as is often the case, those farthest from the event have the least traffic, and those closest are likely unable to escape, which is clearly a broken process.

Through simulation and AI-driven communications, you should be able to phase an evacuation more effectively and ensure the maximum number of people are made safe.

Another significant issue when managing disasters is communications.

While Cisco typically rolls trucks into disaster areas to restore communications as part of the company’s sustainability efforts, it can take days to weeks to get the trucks to a disaster, making it critical that the government has an emergency communication platform that will operate if cell towers are down or have hardened the cell towers, so they don’t go down.

Interestingly, during 9/11, all communication was disrupted in New York City because there was a massive communications hub under the towers that failed when they collapsed. What saved the day was BlackBerry’s two-way pager network that remained up and working. In their collective brilliance, instead of institutionalizing the network that stayed up, they discontinued it and now don’t have a network that will survive the disasters they see worldwide.

It’s worth noting that BlackBerry’s AtHoc solution for critical event management would have been a huge help in the response to this latest disaster on Maui.

Again, simulation can showcase the benefits of such a network and re-establishing a more robust communications network that will survive an emergency since most people no longer have AM radios, which used to be a reliable way to get information in a disaster.

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Finally, autonomous cars will eventually form a mesh network that could potentially survive a disaster. Using centralized control, they could be automatically routed out of danger areas using the fastest and safest routes determined by an AI.

We usually rebuild after a disaster, but they tend to build the same types of structures that failed us before, which makes no sense. The exception was after the great San Francisco earthquake in 1906, which was the impetus for regulations to Boost structures to withstand strong quakes.

In a fire area, they should rebuild houses with materials that could survive a firestorm. You can build fire-resistant homes using metal, insulation, water sprinklers, and a water source like a pool or large water tank. It would also be wise to use something like European Rolling Shutters to protect windows so that you could better shelter in place rather than having to evacuate and maybe getting caught on the road by the fire.

With insurance companies now abandoning areas that are likely to be at high risk, this building method will do a better job of assuring people don’t lose most or all of their belongings, family, or pets.

Again, simulation can showcase how well a particular house design could survive a disaster. In terms of rebuilding on Maui, 3D-printed houses go up in a fraction of the time and are, depending on the material used, more resistant to fire and other natural disasters.

One of the issues with floods and fires is the need to move large volumes of water quickly. While the scale of the vehicle needed to deal with floods may be unachievable near-term, carrying enough water to douse a fire quickly that was still relatively small is not.

We’ve been talking about bringing back blimps and dirigibles to move large objects for some time. Why not use them to carry water to fires rapidly? They could use AI technology to automate them so that if the aircraft has an accident, it doesn’t kill the crew. AI can, with the proper sensor suite, see through smoke and navigate more safely in tight areas, and it can act more rapidly than a human crew.

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Much like they went to extreme measures to develop the atomic bomb to end a war, they are at war with their environment yet haven’t been able to work up the same level of effort to create weapons to fight the growing number of natural disasters.

We could, for instance, create unique bombers to drop self-deploying lightning rods in areas that are hard to reach to reduce the number of fires started by lightning strikes. The estimate I’ve seen suggests you’d need 400 lightning rods per square mile to do this, but you could initially just focus on areas that are difficult to reach.

You could use robotic equipment and drones to place the lightning rods on trees or drop them from bombers to reduce the roughly $100-per-rod purchase and installation cost at volume.

The real problem is that they aren’t taking these disasters seriously enough to prevent them. They seem to treat each disaster as a unique and non-recurring event even though in areas like where I live, they are almost monthly now.

Once a disaster occurs, they have the option of either moving to a safer location or rebuilding using technology that will prevent their home from being destroyed. Currently, most of us do neither and then complain about how unfair it is that we’ve had to experience that disaster again.

Given how iffy insurance companies are becoming about these disasters, I’m also beginning to think that spending more money on hardening and less on insurance might result in a better outcome.

While AI could contribute here, developers haven’t yet trained it on questions like this. Maybe it should be. That way, they could ask their AI what the best path forward would be, and its answer wouldn’t rely on the vendors to which it’s tied, political talking points, or other biased sources. Instead, it would base its response on what would protect us, their loved ones, and their assets. Wouldn’t that be nice?

My two favorite all-in-one computers were the second-generation iMac, which looked like the old Pixar lamp, and the second-generation IBM NetVista.

I liked the Apple because it was incredibly flexible in terms of where you could move the screen, and the IBM because, unlike most all-in-ones, you could upgrade it. Sadly, both were effectively out of the market by the early 2000s.

Since then, the market has gravitated mainly toward the current generation iMac, where you have the intelligence behind the screen, creating a high center of gravity and a lower build cost. In my opinion, this design creates a significant tip-over risk if the base is too light — as it is in the current iMac.

The HP EliteOne 870 G9 has a wide, heavy base which should prevent it from toppling if bumped, Bang and Olufsen sound (which filled up my test room nicely), a 12th Gen Intel processor, 256GB SSD, 8GB of memory, and an awesome 27-inch panel.

Unlike earlier designs, it has a decent built-in camera that doesn’t hide behind the monitor. In practice, I think this is a better solution because it’s less likely to break.

The HP EliteOne 870 G9 27-inch All-in-One PC is a versatile desktop solution. (Image Credit: HP)

As with most all-in-ones, the 870 G9 uses integrated Intel graphics, so it isn’t a gaming machine. Still, it’s suitable for those who might do light gaming and mostly productivity work, web browsing, and videos. The game I play most often ran fine on it, but it is an older title.

The screen is a very nice 250 nit (good for indoors only), FHD, and IPS display. Also, as with most desktop PCs, the mouse and keyboard are cheap, but most of us use aftermarket mice and keyboards anyway, so that shouldn’t be a problem. The base configuration costs around $1,140, which is reasonable for a 27-inch all-in-one.

A fingerprint reader is optional, but I found Microsoft Hello worked just fine with the camera, and I like it better. The installation consists of two screws to secure the monitor arm to the base, and then the monitor/PC just snaps onto the arm. This all-in-one is a vPro machine which means it will comply with most corporate policies. At 24 pounds, it is easy to move from room to room, but no one will mistake this for a truly mobile computer.

The PC has a decent port-out with 2 USB type Cs, 5 USB type As, and a unique HDMI-in port in case you want to connect a set-top box, game system, or other video source and use it as a TV, so it is a decent option for a small apartment, dorm, or kitchen where a TV/PC might be useful.

Clean design, adequate performance, and truly awesome sound make the HP EliteOne 870 G9 a terrific all-in-one PC — and my Product of the Week.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ECT News Network.

HP unveils new laptops to power up gaming and content creation experience

IT11 ส.ค. 66 16:58

HP unveiled its latest line-up of gaming laptops powered by Intel®️ Core™️ processors, designed to power up gamers and content creators’ computing experience. The new OMEN Transcend 16, OMEN 16 and Victus 16 laptops offer lifestyle and hardcore gamers in Thailand the flexibility to work and play hard, equipping them with powerful devices to ace in virtual battlefields, as well as their creative workflows and processes.

Thailand is at the center of gaming and esports boom in Southeast Asia. Number of gamers in Thailand is expected to grow to 11.5 million users by 2027 , as more youths turn to video games to connect with friends and likeminded enthusiasts in the gaming community . To help Thai gamers to excel and play an active role in the gaming community, HP unveils a new series of gaming laptops for every type of gamer, empowering them to play to win by elevating their capabilities and experiences through innovative technologies.

“At HP, they are constantly driving local insights and gathering feedback to understand their customers current gaming and computing needs to perfect their portfolio of products, ensuring there is a solution for every type of gamer. The new OMEN Transcend 16, OMEN 16 and Victus 16 are testaments to their pursuit for innovation, and they will continue to enhance their gaming portfolio to bring gamers everything they need to enjoy the game they love,” said Varanit Athijaratroj, Managing Director of HP Thailand.

Blazing Fast Gameplay with Cutting-Edge Power to Create

Both lifestyle gamers and gaming enthusiasts want devices that supply them the power to play the most demanding AAA games and performance to handle the most graphically intensive creative activities including multitasking, accelerate 3D models rendering, or when using powerful creative tools like Adobe software suite. The OMEN Transcend 16 laptop was built for gaming and creation with cutting-edge, premium slim chassis and high-end internal components.

The New OMEN Transcend 16 laptop helps gamers ace their favorite games by:

Extreme Performance to Play Anything

HP is also announcing the next generation OMEN 16 laptop for hardcore gamers. This is the most powerful OMEN 16 yet, with a gen-over-gen improvement of 119 percent FPS in Cyberpunk 2077 . It is powered by up to a 13th Gen Intel® Core™ i9-13900HX mobile processor for ultra-fast in-game computations. Graphics powered by up to an NVIDIA® GeForce® RTX™ 4080 Laptop GPU ensures every pixel is rendered at lightning speeds on up to a QHD 240Hz display with a 3ms response time.

The OMEN Transcend 16 and OMEN 16 laptops enable users to:

High Performance Mainstream Gaming

Ninety percent of Gen Z reports regularly playing and engaging with games, and Generation Alpha cites gaming makes up 21 percent of their leisure time . These audiences need a device that adapts to how they play and live, and the Victus 16 laptop delivers this with this high performance in a mainstream device. Elevated through OMEN Dynamic Power, users can start their gaming journeys with the flexibility for schoolwork, entertainment and content creation.

Victus 16 laptop empowers those starting their gaming journeys to:

Seamless Ecosystem with HyperX

Seamless connectivity is a critical part of any gamer’s gaming experience. For the first time, HyperX and OMEN together engineered the world’s first gaming laptops with an embedded module for intuitive audio pairing and ultra-low latency solution via a bundled HyperX Cloud II Core Wireless Gaming Headset option . Enabled on OMEN Transcend 16 and OMEN 16 laptops, this quick and easy configuration allows for anyone to step into a seamless gaming experience with impeccable audio out of the box.

HyperX gaming headset, keyboards, mice and microphones complement all the announced OMEN and Victus products for the ultimate gaming ecosystem.

Pricing and Availability

The OMEN Transcend 16, OMEN 16 and Victus 16 laptops are available at all authorised resellers and online platforms or at HP.com with pricing as follows

Starting today and lasting until August 31st, 2023, seize the opportunity to indulge in HP’s exclusive offer: a complimentary special gift of the OMEN or Victus Fury Bundle with purchase of OMEN or Victus laptops. This promotion is applicable solely to joint-promotion items at premier IT stores nationwide. The gift bundle includes the HyperX Cloud Core DTS gaming headset and the HyperX Pulsefire Haste Lightweight gaming mouse, or you can receive ADP coverage upgrade for a period of up to 3 years, valued at over 10,000 baht.

(*Limited product availability, terms and conditions as specified by the company)

Source: Edelman

Edelman