Quantum Computing Programming is not Mystic

Chris Woodford (2018) asserts that when Moore's law does not apply to physics anymore, Quantum Computing is the next option. We are approaching a point where transistors will soon be as small as atoms. Enter the realm of Quantum Computing...

Quantum Computing is a radically different way computers will work but how will this affect software developers and programmers? Will programming change radically too?

Don't worry, the programming follows the same rules and is not some weird ethereal magical stuff that you imagine when thinking about quantum physics. But instead of bits, Woodford brings out that information will be stored as quantum bits also known as qubits.

Q# is a new quantum computing computer language by Microsoft that Paz (2017) infers is used for expressing quantum algorithms. He also mentions that because quantum processors are not widely available, Q# subroutines execute on a simulator.

In fact, you can start using the Q# programming language on Visual Studio 2017 and later as demonstrated by Mahesh Chand (2018). 

As technology develops rapidly, programming will continue to be the bedrock of systems and the rules by which we program won't change any time soon especially if even in quantum computing, programming functions on the same principles.

References:

1. Woodford, C. (2018) Quantum Computing [online] Available from: https://www.explainthatstuff.com/quantum-computing.html [Accessed 23 December 2018]

2. Paz, A. (2017) The Q# Programming Language [online]Available from: https//docs.microsoft.com/en-us/quantum/language/?view=qsharp-preview [Accessed 23 December]

3. Chand, M. (2018) Getting Started with Q# Programming [online] Available from: https://www.c-sharpcorner.com/article/getting-started-with-q-programming/ [Accessed 23 December 2018]

Chatbots Transforming Consumer Support

Consumer Support automation is a niche in the market that chatbots are rapidly filling more especially in major chat products such as Facebook Messenger. In layman's terms you can now shop online with assistance from a chatbot as you communicate what you are looking for (Schlicht, 2016).

Schlicht describes a chatbot as a service that can live on a major chat product and can be powered by rules or AI through machine learning as an example. It mimics human conversation to provide customer services.

I took the liberty to test one myself; a chatbot for Fandango on Facebook Messenger. Kajabi (2018) explains how Fandango is an app you can download to watch trailers, read reviews of recently released films, and interact with other people who love motion pictures. The chatbot on Facebook Messenger allows users to do some of those things without leaving Facebook.

Below is a screenshot of my experience with the chatbot:

Rathinam (2018) invokes that one of the greatest disadvantages of chatbots is that they are expensive to integrate as they must integrate with existing software to function. Aside from this drawback they lower the cost of having actual humans interact with consumers.

He also mentions how chatbots are not entirely efficient because they lack the contextual knowledge to effectively account for all the complexities of language and will therefore require more advanced AI to iron out their inefficiencies.

It seems that current chatbots are only good for the basic queries for a business. You may still need to call the Customer Helpdesk for the more advanced queries. But this is where chatbots have room to thrive as AI also advances. 

Niko Bonatsos has said that "~90% of our time on mobile is spent on email and messaging platforms. I would love to back teams that build stuff for places where the consumers hang out!” —  Managing Director at General Catalyst

Hence chatbots are truly a niche market and we can expect to see growth in their development in the near future.

References:

1.  Schlicht, M. (2016) The Complete Beginner's Guide to Chatbots [online] Available from: https://chatbotsmagazine.com/the-complete-beginner-s-guide-to-chatbots-8280b7b906ca [Accessed on 20 November 2018]
2. Kajabi (2018) 20 Examples of Facebook Messenger Chatbots to Inspire You in 2018 [online] Available from: https://blog.newkajabi.com/chatbot-examples [Accessed 20 November 2018]
3. Rathinam,  P.(2018) AI 101: The Basics of Automation for Customer Support [online] Available from: http://customerthink.com/ai-101-the-basics-of-automation-for-customer-support/ [Accessed 20 November 2018]

Angular JS is Your Programming Framework

Angular JS is a rich, clean and high performing web application framework and is open source software.

It is used for dynamic websites to enable seamless navigation to create a better user experience in most popular browsers.

As for security, Angular JS does not pose a threat to an organization's IT infrastructure because its focus is exclusively on data representation.

https://www.awwwards.com/practical-uses-of-angularjs-create-a-single-page-application-spa-or-a-website-menu-in-an-instant.html

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/28017816/what-browsers-does-angularjs-work-with

http://blog.backand.com/angular-enterprise-dev/

Simple Program in Java that Reverses a String

So I decided to code a simple program today in Java because my laptop is down and I cannot access Visual Studio to program in C#, which is the language I'm used to.

The program reverses any string you input and displays it backwards.

I discovered something that Java doesn't have which C# does. C# treats a string as an array but Java doesn't. So in line 34, in C#, I could've typed "words[i] = str[count];". Which is syntactic sugar compared to Java. Yet C# is considered more complex than Java which you can read about in this link. Since I'm a novice in Java and have been groomed in C#, I guess I WOULD find C# must easier.

Below is my code. Please comment if you have an easier way to code this.