#050 - Indian Army + Quantum Computing ... 3D printed skull ... Bharat font

Aug 18

Greeting folks,

Happy Janmashtami & get ready for the long weekend. I am happy to introduce the 50th edition of the newsletter with some interesting bytes in this edition. Some bits,

NASA’s Artemis moon mission will be launched on 29 Aug. The payload to the moon has some interesting objects. 3 mannequins that mimic human body in flesh to study the radiation effects, Callisto (a version of Alexa), a Snoopy toy and seeds for space radiation exposure will be part of the moon probe that will orbit the moon and splash in earth after 42 days
Effective September, Apple now requires employees to work from office three days a week, with Tuesday and Thursday being mandatory. The 3rd working day in office can be decided with team members.
Meta has released its metaverse Horizon World to some European countries. But Mark Zuckerberg’s selfie in the metaverse is brutally trolled for the poor graphics. After spending around $10 billion, one would not expect graphics from 90s.

Indian Army and Quantum Computing.

Quantum technology will soon be available to the Indian Army to secure its communications. This technology will be provided by QNu, a Bengaluru-based company.

But why would an army require Quantum Technology?

Modern IT and communications use encryption systems that use a key to encrypt and decrypt. The encryption key is usually a prime or semi-prime number (the product of 2 prime numbers), and the key is known to the source system. If the key is cracked, then decryption is easy.

A supercomputer may take days or even months to crack such keys. However, quantum computers can crack these keys in a matter of minutes. This means that an IT security system that relies on prime numbers to encrypt the key leaves its safes wide open to looting if the attacker has quantum tools.

A 3D printed skull saved the life of a new born

In February 2022, a baby was born in Poland with only one-fifth of a skull, and doctors gave him only four days to live.

The medical team performed a thorough MRI and CT scan and contacted Sygnis SA, a 3D printing technology company. Sygnis created two versions of the skull in 26 hours using 3D printing, effectively halting all other live production processes.

The baby has been successfully discharged since then, but the news has been reported just now.

‘Bharat’ font

To commemorate India's 75th Independence Day (or 76th for some), advertising agency Rediffusion created a 'Bharat' font that embodies Indian culture. Each typeface was created by a team of five people who researched various Indian languages. Sweden created an official font called 'Sweden Sans' a few years ago.

However, the Bharat font is NOT an official font of India. But Sweden Sans officially represents the country as a brand. Sweden Sans, in my opinion, is more elegant than Bharat. You can draw a parallel.