ABARNA SAKTHI

Her computer, Karin Strauss says, contains her "digital attic"—a place where she stores that published math paper she wrote in high school, and computer science schoolwork from college. She'd like to preserve the stuff "as long as I live, at least," says Strauss, 37. But computers must be replaced every few years, and each time she must copy the information over, "which is a little bit of a headache." It would be much better, she says, if she could store it in DNA—the stuff our genes are made of. Strauss, who works at Microsoft Research in Redmond, Washington, is working to make that sci-fi fantasy a reality. She and other scientists are not focused in finding ways to stow high school projects or snapshots or other things an average person might accumulate, at least for now. Rather, they aim to help companies and institutions archive huge amount...

Friendship Day: Try these apps to make new friends Sulabh Puri | TOI Tech | Aug 7, 2016, 12.36 PM IST A true friend is a person one confides in, he/she is your partner in crime and they help you get out of sticky situations. Some would say friends matter the most after family and some say friends matter more than family. Whatever the case, one thing is for sure, that people won't stop making friends. These days there are plenty of ways one can socialise and make new friends. Go to a club/pub and start talking to strangers and see if they strike the right chords to be your next bestie. Or use an app that will enable you to find a pal you can go out for dinner or catch a movie with. If you want to try the latter, here is our recommendation of mobile apps , which you can try this Friendship Day to make new friends. Skout This app enables you to connect with new people near your location. The app lets you meet and chat with men and women based ...

Banking firms use blockchain technology to ease trade financing processs Reuters | Aug 10, 2016, 09.42 PM IST LONDON/HONG KONG: An HSBC and Bank of America Merrill Lynch venture and financial technology firm R3 said separately on Wednesday that they had created ways of using blockchain technology to simplify trade finance processes. The two banks said they had joined with the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore to emulate a letter of credit (LOC) transaction. Letters of credit are one of the most widely used ways to reduce risk between importers and exporters, helping guarantee more than $2 trillion worth of transactions, but the process creates a large paper trail and is time consuming. Meanwhile, R3 said more than 15 of its consortium member banks have also designed self-executing transaction agreements, known as smart contracts, on R3's distributed ledger platform to process accounts receivable purchase transactions, known as invoice fina...