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Day: September 7, 2020

Confluent Platform 6 brings cluster linking to Apache Kafka

Confluent released Confluent Platform 6, an update that integrates new capabilities on top of the open source Apache Kafka event streaming platform.

The stream processing vendor, based in Mountain View, Calif., revealed the update Aug. 24 during its Kafka Summit virtual conference, which ran Aug. 24-25, but did not say when it will be generally available.

Among the enhanced capabilities in the latest version of the platform is the ksqlDB event streaming database, which was first introduced in November 2019.

Confluent also integrated a series of scalability improvements it has referred to collectively as Project Metamorphosis. As part of its scalability capabilities, Confluent put a cluster linking feature in the update that aims to make it easier for users to connect different Kafka event streaming data instances.

Confluent Platform 6 metamorphosis

Confluent Platform 6.0 is the first fruit of Project Metamorphosis, and it is clear that more capabilities are coming, said IDC analyst Stewart Bond.

“Confluent Platform 6.0 is adding features around Kafka that will make it easier for developers to build cloud-native data applications against and increase adoption of real-time stream processing workloads,” Bond said. “Business has always been in real time, but technology limitations of the past

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Japan’s SkyDrive ‘Flying Car’ Successfully Carries Out Test Flight With a Person Aboard

The decades-old dream of zipping around in the sky as simply as driving on highways may be becoming less illusory.

Japan’s SkyDrive, among the myriads of “flying car” projects around the world, has carried out a successful though modest test flight with one person aboard.

In a video shown to reporters on Friday, a contraption that looked like a slick motorcycle with propellers lifted several feet off the ground, and hovered in a netted area for four minutes.

Tomohiro Fukuzawa, who heads the SkyDrive effort, said he hopes “the flying car” can be made into a real-life product by 2023, but he acknowledged that making it safe was critical.

“Of the world’s more than 100 flying car projects, only a handful has succeeded with a person on board,” he told The Associated Press.

“I hope many people will want to ride it and feel safe.”

The machine so far can fly for just five to 10 minutes but if that can become 30 minutes, it will have more potential, including exports to places like China, Fukuzawa said.

Unlike airplanes and helicopters, eVTOL (electric vertical takeoff and landing) vehicles offer quick point-to-point personal travel, at least in principle.

They could do

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People around you may be the reason why you don’t like your body

You only have one body and it is not going to stay the same. Time takes a toll on all of us and there is no such thing as a perfect body. It is important to have a positive body image, because that’s what you’re stuck with. Now scientists from the University of Waterloo found that relationships also affect the way we feel about our bodies.

Ever felt like breaking a mirror after looking at it? You definitely look better than you think you do. Image credit: Lionel Allorge via Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 3.0)

The problem of body image is especially big in women. Men seem to be more relaxed when it comes to the way they look. They also are not under so much societal pressure when it comes to their image. Scientists wanted to see what shapes body image in women and therefore they asked a group of young women to indicate the way they perceive their bodies. Participants of the study also had to describe the way their body image changes depending on the social circle they are in – how they view themselves when they are with family members, friends, coworkers and such.

Unsurprisingly, scientists found

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