Technology Release: Fill & Download for Free

For machine learning, it is not that simple to watch out for technologies since things are constantly changing in the field. New frameworks appear and old ones evolve (or disappear). Yet, there are still some core technologies to monitor.Microsoft Cognitive Toolkit: Initially released about four years back, this is an AI solution that you can apply to get your machine learning projects to the next stage in every respect. Many researchers have reported that the open-source framework can develop specific algorithms to operate like the human brain.TensorFlow: With the original release of this open-source machine learning framework, it has been used across many platforms and is easy to apply. Created by Google at first, now all the leading tech behemoths such as eBay, Dropbox, Intel, and Uber apply it extensively. With the support of flow graphs, one can develop neural networks.Torch: One of the oldest such technologies released back in 2002, it is a machine learning library that includes a range of algorithms for deep learning. With an open-source framework, it provides the finest speed and flexibility without having to worry about any complications.

It depends which Mac you have, and which OS you are running. You won't see any notable performance gains over Mojave.Some older Macs are not supported by Catalina, so those Macs obviously can’t benefit at all.Catalina is a Technology release, and Technology releases always bring some pain with them.What is meant by a Technology release?There have now been enough version of macOS (including OS X) for Apple’s patterns to be detected relating to the key directions that underly each release.In general, each release will contain aspects of:Application Release - Introducing new strategic AppsFeature Release - Introducing new under-the-hood OS capabilitiesTechnology Release - Out with old, in with the newMaintenance Release - Regaining control, performance and stabilityUsually, one of these aspects will be noticeably the most dominant.For example, OS X 10.5 (Leopard) was primarily a Technology release, out with the old, in with the new. It saw the end of support for the G3 processors (and the lower end G4 models also) and also dropped support for the old Classic environment. It introduced full support for 64 bit apps and introduced a new modernised look and feel to the User Interface.It was followed by Snow Leopard, a maintenance release which brought significant performance, stability and efficiency improvements. This was a critical decision and very much needed given the massive upheaval of Leopard, and I remember this decision as being the 3rd time I had been impressed by Apple (the first had been the 17″ “Anglepoise” iMac and the second was the ridiculously smooth transition from PowerPC to Intel).Lion was a tame mini-Technology release, removing support for 32 bit processors and killing Rosetta (support classic Apps). It was a cleanup operation, clearing the decks and engine room of bloat in readiness for the stream of Application focussed releases that were to follow.Mountain Lion through Sierra (10.8 - 10.12) were all about Apps, with El Capitan (10.11) also serving as a general maintenance release. During this period iWork (Keynote, Pages, Numbers) were made free and the Mac got Messages, Notification Centre, Game Centre, Maps, iBooks, Reminders, Notes, Photos and Siri. Additionally, many of the existing Apps gained new features and most Apps also gained iOS counterparts with syncing of the App data provided by iCloud.While these releases were primarily App focussed, the OS upgrades still included other aspects such as feature upgrades like the Metal API and Apple Pay, but it was High Sierra (10.13) that brought the next wave advanced features, including ML, Metal 2, Apple File System (APFS), VR and HEVC (High Efficiency Video).High Sierra also served as a final maintenance release for many older machines (approximately 2010 and earlier).Mojave (10.14) was primarily a maintenance release and brought additional performance, stabilisation, security and efficiency improvements.Catalina (10.15) is primarily a Technology Release. Like Leopard, this means out with the old and in with the new, and like Leopard it is a disruptive release. It removes support for 32 bit Apps, introduces a new look and feel, breaks iTunes into component Apps and adds support for TV and Arcade.Mac users who have only used Apple for a few years are unlikely to have seen a macOS release quite as disruptive as Catalina before.Typically they cause some hurt to some users and this hurt is often (mistakenly) directed solely at Apple.For example, Catalina sees the removal of support for old 32 bit Apps. A number of Adobe’s stand alone apps still rely on 32 bit and these will no longer work fully (or at all in some cases) with Catalina.Why does this happen?There are three decision makers in our App triangle:Apple: The OS SupplierThe App Developer: Eg AdobeThe User: Us. The ones with the choice of whether or not to install a Technology release or stick with old Apps.Apple: Apple need to keep the OS stable and performing fast, securely and efficiently and they need to keep the bloat in check. They first signalled that 32bit support would eventually die out over 8 years ago, back in 2011 with the release of Lion.Since then 32 bit apps have continued to be supported by essentially maintaining 2 versions of the fundamental parts of the operating system libraries, a 32 bit version and a 64 bit version.As the operating system grows to incorporate more and more features, the task of maintaining 2 core systems grows increasingly more complex, impacting stability, security, performance and bloat.However, one thing that is definitely more complex than maintaining two cores is maintaining three. It’s no secret that Apple have been experimenting with their own ARM processor chip with some reports that Apple will launch ARM based macBook Pros in 2020.It all points to Catalina as being the official start of this transition to ARM, another “clear the decks” exercise. In the same way that Rosetta allowed PowerPC apps to run on Intel Macs, there is likely some kind of Rosetta 2 planned to support 64 bit Intel Apps on ARM, but only well behaved 64 bit apps will be allowed to play.They announced with Mojave that it would be the last to support 32 bit Apps and included a feature that alerted the user (when they opened a 32 bit App) that the App wouldn't work in future versions of macOS. This gave any developers who still hadn't upgraded their Apps, one more year to do so, if they wanted.Developers: Developers have had over 8 years to switch from 32 bit to 64 bit. In a great many cases it was a trivial task that involved little more than switching from using the 32 bit OS libraries to the 64 bit versions. There were some, comparatively few, cases where it was a more substantial change, but still, they’ve had over 8 years…If developers haven't switched their Apps to 64bit by now it is for one very simple reason. They simply don't want to.For example, Adobe. Adobe have switched to a cloud based monthly subscription service for all their creative Apps. There was a significant public outcry at this decision as users wanted to continue using the software they had already paid for. Adobe agreed and made one final maintenance release after which they were on their own. This release still didn't address full 64 bit support. Essentially meaning they knew and intended that these Apps would eventually become obsolete.Users: Users are the ones left in the middle trying to balance out what works for them. Users of older legacy software need to decide if they want to keep trying to stick with the older software, sacrificing OS upgrades, or bite the bullet and transition to newer supported software.For me, I have chosen a dual boot system between Mojave and Catalina.Mojave is rock solid, fast, efficient and secure, and there are still a few legacy Apps I’m not ready to say goodbye to.But as a developer, I also need access to some of Catalina’s developer focussed features, so I need to also have Catalina installed.Thanks to the way APFS works (and Apps in general) this is actually proving to be quite an efficient way of using it. The Catalina system shares my SSD storage with the Mojave system and I can access the same Apps and data from both, meaning I don't need a lot of duplication.My macBook Pro is a 2014 model, meaning it doesn't support some of the new Catalina features such as Sidecar (using my iPad as an extra screen). So I will likely stay with a dual boot set-up until I am ready to upgrade to a new mac. I intend to move back to a maxed out macBook Air, but am waiting to see if they revert it back to having a better keyboard, like they have done with the new macBook Pro.Just to return to your original point. I wouldn't upgrade to Catalina just to look for performance gains. That’s clearly not the focus of Catalina.If you’re running Mojave, you’re running it on a mac the Mojave fully supports and Mojave already contains most of the significant performance optimisations available.It’s possible (expected even) that there will be a future maintenance release that will be the last for Intel 64bit processors, and I wouldn't expect any notable performance improvements over Mojave until then.So unless you really need some of its new features, I would wait for Catalina to fully stabilise, or even the next release, and use the time until then to rationalise your Apps and Data for the post-32bit world.

I’ll assume that when you say, ‘know Chinese’, you meant fluently. I’m sharing my view as a person who only has a limited speaking ability of Cantonese, but is not literate in Chinese, nor do I understand Mandarin.There are a couple of things:Idioms - Chinese idioms are deeply rooted in historical and cultural contexts, if you don’t understand the history and the cultural significance of the idiom, you won’t even understand what they mean.Food - a lot of Chinese restaurants feature a menu in English, and they also have a separate small menu exclusively in Chinese. You can miss out on these speciality dishes if you can’t read Chinese.Drama/TV/media - China is home to many dialects, and one way around this is everyone being able to read and understand the national standard dialect: mandarin. Every movie/tv show/documentary etc has Chinese subtitles, so if someone can’t understand the accent or dialect of a speaker, they can at least read the subtitles.Cheap prices - it’s no secret that if vendors know that you’re not a local, they’ll fleece you so bad because they know you won’t be able communicate your outrage and haggle with them.Technology - technology released in Asia is far ahead of technology commercially available in Western countries. If you know Chinese, you’ll have the option of having access to these.That’s all I could think of right now off the top of my head.