NPTEL is today one of the biggest repositories of technical courses in engineering and sciences in the world. I enrolled for Embedded Systems. Introduction to Data Analytics and Machine Learning. Introduction to Modern Application Development. Project Planning and Control. Introduction to Programming in Sikyatha. I did the Health Research Fundamentals. Building Science. Introduction to Airplane Performance. I enrolled for English Language for Competitive Exams. This is my 11th exam. I have done a FAP certificate. I am an Associate Professor in Chemistry at Pachaiapas College, Chennai. I am working as an Assistant Professor. I am working as an Associate Professor. I am a Social Scholar. I am a Scientist in DRDO. I am a Rameshwar Engineering, Sensa Transitionist and Manufacturing Company. I am a TBS Group. I am a Pediatrician. I am working in Chennai Port. I am a third year in Electrical Engineering. I am working as an Engineering Manager. I am 17 years old now. I completed my course. I am an Expiring Entrepreneur. I am my own start-up. I am a Doctor, actually. I am working at Yamamoto's R&D. I am working in the ADR Cancer Institute in Chennai. I feel much happy to attend this exam. Funny experience. Excellent. The videos were extraordinary and marvelous. Whatever the questions posted in the forum, it's immediately been answered. That is an amazing work, what they are doing it really. With respect to NPTEL, the quality of lectures and delivery of the contents to the students, no doubt unquestionable. It's too good. The examination today I really enjoyed. I have been travelling more than two hours daily. I am just hearing the entire video conversation throughout my journey. Not sitting at home. We have done some operational research. We have done some numerical analysis. The lectures are very good. The students get some benefits. I was working in a different domain, totally like mainframes. So the course which I took was Introduction to Modern Application Development. So this course was very helpful because I have learnt new technologies. Each and every day we learnt new topics and assignments are also something which we are able to apply, search further. So I am looking forward for more courses in the future. The course content was very extraordinary to be precise. Even if you compare to other websites, they don't offer certification like MIT or any Carnegie Mellon open course. But this is a very good initiative by the IITs and IACs which can improve the standard of education. Just taken our Indian education to other level. I was expecting to get gold medal by IIT but I don't know if it will be there or not. The forum was useful. I posted many questions. I got immediate response also. It helped me a lot. The exam for acoustics, it's related to noise and vibration. Being well organized, now I am looking for more courses relating to my subject. I see this particular exam as a self-exploration of knowledge among the faculty members as well as it helps students to enrich their subject domain to a greater extent. We are all placed in telecom domain. So we thought taking up a course later to telecom would help us. So we took up the course principles of MIMO, OFTM and CDMA wireless communication. Health research fundamentals. Very useful actually. The course is very useful. We are basically from CDC department. Even though we were not so fluent in this programming. But while watching those videos we got to know the nook and corners about that. I have taken project planning and control. This was really effective and useful. I think this will help me in my career and in my placements. And this is very useful and a new experience for me. Got a lot of steps from these three months. I have learned more in these three months than taking some papers in the college. It's a nice opportunity for people outside of IITs to be able to take an exam that is conducted by IITs. So the standards are pretty good obviously. It's a great opportunity for every student in many other colleges to get a certificate from IIT. The way they teach. The way they represent the subjects is awesome. They come up with the recent trends and they talk about the application in our syllabus and all. They just focus on marks. This NPT like helps me to focus on what is hard what we can do, what we can apply from this. It's very useful to me because I am from the BTEC side. I heard from the college seniors like you should do the course from the NPTEL. And I found it very useful and very very productive. Even at the age of 50 plus we are getting some enthusiasm to go through all these like all those things. I think the course was really informative and it has helped me a lot. So I think now I can become a good project developer or something. Entire site was responsive so whatever I asked they answered it very clearly. I think I will definitely take up one more course. So I have done my online course on biostatistics and experiments. It would be useful for my career. For a youngster definitely it is useful. But this type of courses if you find in other places it is very very costly. But here it is for landing purpose it is cheap. For obtaining a certificate it is only a nominal fees. As much as I could not learn in my college I could learn through this course. All the basic concepts which were not cleared were also cleared. All the exams which were assigned were done. There were many major problems. It was fun to solve them. Today I took enhancing soft skills and personality. Nowadays most of the courses are supported with text material. That we like. Certification in my profession it is very helpful. I think it is good from a resume point of view. Plus it is a kind of a testament that you have this basic knowledge and then you can go to an advanced course. It is fantastic. I never experienced such a coordination. It is a very good experience. Another person from my college has taken it and both of us feel that the teaching was absolutely brilliant throughout the course and not only theory even practice was there. They actually showed us through the flight lab and they actually had very, very practical examples. I appreciate the initiative of MHRD and the stonious efforts taken by the IIT groups for providing the latest and technically sound education on online mode. This is the first time I felt that some course for working professionals and it is well organized as such. I must congratulate IITs for taking this initiative to take education and the contents that they have as part of NPTEL to all the people particularly the student community who can benefit a great deal. It was hosted by a professor from IIT, Kharagpur and it was honestly recommended by my faculty just so we could gain more insight into the working of the systems as per se. The question paper was pretty good. I expected a lot to be a lot tougher than it was but I guess the practice which was given on the site was pretty useful for me. Nowadays doctors are expected to do a lot of research also apart from seeing patients so this course helped me to learn a lot. Giving all those information in an open source manner first of all being a technical person I am congratulating them I am thanking them. It was a nice experience. It's wonderful in sitting along with the students and solving the problems makes us to be more concentrated with the course to have a better deliverability of the content to the recent trends are in par with the reputed institutions. Our colleges they don't take at this high level of programming and found the videos very useful because it made me think out of the box. It was a very useful both from urban area and from rural area and for rural area students would be able to pull the students. Most of the students are benefited most of them are appeared and got certificates. Since we had a certificate exam we prepared even better and this MCQ based online exam was a very good experience. We would love if there were more such courses coming up and on various other topics because under health this was only the only one available. I was looking for such a course for a long time. This course was really like bringing a bridge across what we are doing now and what we are going to do in the future. I learned more concepts in C plus in depth and PTL exam was very good. He taught each and every line in depth so we can understand very well. Definitely once you get hooked on to this particular process of learning you will find that you can learn at your own pace and time and you will also be benefited with a certification which is also what a case stamped by industry and therefore you will find it is an employment facility. This program will be the harbinger of a big intervention in India in the area of online education so that we can address the grand challenge of providing high quality and useful education to a very very large number probably the largest number of youngsters in the world. Thank you.


So it's 2023 and, you know, things are starting to wrap up as we get towards the end of the year. We got Thanksgiving right around the corner, maybe already here, Christmas coming up and the new years for 2024. And we spent a long time talking about things like Nintendo Switch 2 and even debating like what's going to win Game of the Year and all of that stuff. But what's really exciting is that Nintendo is pretty much about to reveal something. I mean, and I say pretty much, it's almost a guarantee. We're about to get another big reveal from Nintendo before the end of this year. Now why am I saying that? Well it's pretty simple. We do have the game awards coming up on December 7th at 7.30pm Eastern time. Now we'll be live streaming that and making a big event out of it and having a good time but that's sort of besides the point because what we're really interested in beyond obviously who wins all the different awards is what Nintendo is going to reveal because today I looked back at the last 10 years going all the way back to 2013 to see what Nintendo has shown revealed and done at the game awards and it turns out, you know, we haven't really been given Nintendo enough credit for what they do at the game awards. They actually have a pretty significant reveal every single year but one time. And so chances are, Nintendo is about to have yet another significant reveal heading into 2024 and if you think about it from a logical perspective, it makes sense. We only know about one brand new game next year. All the rest are ports, remakes, remasters, right? And that's Princess Peach Showtime. That's it. That's like the only thing Nintendo has announced for 2024 that's actually brand new. So it would make sense for Nintendo to have a major reveal at this event. So before we get into what that major reveal is, I think we need to look back at the last 10 years and what Nintendo has done and then talk about the possibilities for what can be revealed because guys, this could be massive. Now back in 2013, they revealed Cranky Kong for Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze, probably the least exciting announcement out of all of them over the last 10 years. But this was a long time ago. This was during an era of Nintendo where Nintendo wasn't doing very well. So Cranky Kong for Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze. How exciting. In 2014, they actually dropped a little bit of footage and new information on Mario Maker and they show Breath of the Wild off-screen gameplay. But it's really the first time we actually saw gameplay for Breath of the Wild for the very first time at the Game Awards 2014. Remember, that game was revealed at E3 2014. In 2015, there wasn't any new games, but this was a bit of a unique situation for Nintendo. 2015 was unfortunately the year that the late President, Satura Owada of Nintendo passed away. It probably just didn't feel right to be talking about games at the Game Awards that year. They did, however, get to do a massive tribute, a huge speech from Reggie Fesame. Remember, Owada passed away to colon cancer that year. So it honestly, you know, made a lot of sense. He passed away very shortly after E3 that year. So it made a lot of sense, I think, for them to focus on a tribute to the late President rather than focusing on games. But then 2016 came back and, you know what, they're like, hey guys, there's a new system coming out and it's launching with Breath of the Wild. Let's show you a brand new trailer for Breath of the Wild. So that was pretty exciting. 2017 was maybe the most amount of things they've shown off in a given year. They revealed Bayonetta 1 and 2 were coming to Switch, plus they unveiled that Bayonetta 3 was in the works. That's awesome. They also dropped a brand new trailer for the Champions DLC with the announcement that it was going to be dropping immediately after the end of the Game Awards. Remember, Breath of the Wild won Game of the Year that year, which is just super exciting. You get the Game of the Year win, you get brand new story DLC immediately after the show ends. Man, it was a really, really great year for Nintendo when it came to the Game Awards that year. And by the way, something interesting to pay attention to, and 2017 sort of taught us this. So most of the years at the Game Awards we only have Reggie Fizeme in attendance or we have, you know, now Doug Bowser, who's the current President of Nintendo of America in attendance. That's what it typically is every single year. 2017 was a bit different. Fujiwayashi and Eiji Onuma were in attendance. Why? Because, well, Breath of the Wild won Game of the Year. So pay attention to the crowd. We might be able to know ahead of time if we see Eiji Onuma or Fujiwayashi in the audience might be an indicator that Nintendo is planning to be on stage to accept the Game of the Year award. I'm just throwing that out there. Hey, you know what, Nintendo usually doesn't have the developers in attendance, but they did for a winning Game of the Year, so we'll have to wait and see. 2018, they unveiled Joker at the Game Awards for Super Smash Bros. Really big announcement coming off the backs of Super Smash Bros. Launching. Really, really cool. This is just a really sweet announcement to pair with that big launch. 2019, Nintendo had a bit of a lighter reveal, but it was still a big exclusive game in Bravely Default 2. So a brand new exclusive game was announced for Nintendo Switch in 2019.  So Nintendo even advertised that this was happening. Remember, 2020 was the pandemic year, so kind of crazy. Nintendo was advertising that people need to watch the Game Awards and the Game Awards kicks off with that reveal. Pretty cool. Now this is when we get to the year where Nintendo didn't show anything and I think we can understand why they didn't show anything. We're talking 2021. So the Game Awards 2021, Nintendo, it's the only year at the Game Awards where they no-showed and they didn't bring any reveals of any kind to the show. Now this is likely due to the impact of the pandemic. A lot of companies were dealing with a ton of game delays and we're pretty sure Nintendo is included in all of those companies. There were several companies who had showcased that the Game Awards in the past that didn't have games shown off at these Game Awards. So Nintendo wasn't the only one that didn't really bring the goods. 2021 was a bit light on announcements besides like Elden Rings. So yeah, we're just going to sit there and say, hey, you know what, I can understand why Nintendo no-showed at this particular event. But it didn't last very long because then we had last year where they announced a brand new Bayonetta game again in Bayonetta Origins. Oh, and by the way, people forget about this. They announced the Fire Emblem Engaged DLC. That's right, Fire Emblem Engaged that was launching in January. They have brought the DLC brand new trailer and all of that to the Game Awards last year. I hear people tell me, oh, Nintendo doesn't do anything at the Game Awards. They don't care about the Game Awards. Yeah, they care so little. They've only advertised something at the Game Awards nine of the last 10 years. And the one year they didn't, we were dealing with the damn pandemic. So yeah, it's pretty safe to say Nintendo is going to unveil something. Sometimes that something's pretty big, like a Bayonetta 3 or a massive character in Smash Bros or DLC. And yeah, sometimes it's something crazy. Sometimes it's something a little smaller. So the point is, Nintendo is going to bring something. We know it can't be Smash DLC. That's wrapped up. It can't be Mario Kart DLC. That's also wrapped up. Now, before we dive into the possibilities, I just want to remind you that, hey, if you're not subscribed to the channel and you're really enjoying the content, I'd appreciate it if you would subscribe to the channel. Drop a like. We have a long goal here. Who knows if you subscribe, maybe we'll give you some free Chips Ahoy cookies. That's right. We're switching it up today. So what the heck could Nintendo be bringing to this show? Well, there's a few interesting choices out there. Now there's actually four really, really exciting things they could show. One of those exciting things, though, doesn't happen without the other. So we guess we can say three exciting things, but one of them is like double exciting. Is that a way to explain this? I don't know idea. So let's get into what could be the exciting things they show off. And first off is one that we talk about quite a bit of our channel. And that's the possibility of a Zelda remake or remaster being shown. Obviously, we've talked a lot about Ocarina of Time, especially with its recent 25th anniversary. But it could even be like the much rumored but never announced by Nintendo ports of Twilight Princess HD and the Wind Waker HD. Again, so many insiders have said that these ports have been done. Is this when they bring it? Were they waiting for tears of the kingdom coming out? Knowing it would probably be up for Game of the Year. And then boom. Hey, let's go ahead and drop in, you know, our Zelda remakes then. Have them be nice games that can help fill in the slate next year. Get us all the way to switch to and all that. I don't know, it could just be a possibility. You could also add a nice little mix in there with the Mario games all coming out. But who knows? Like that is stuff we've talked about a lot and is a distinct possibility. And we definitely can't rule it out. Now the second thing this could be that's really exciting would be a reveal of Metroid Prime 4 in terms of gameplay, like a real trailer. Rumors and reports have said that this game is pretty far along, if not almost complete. And by the way, the last Metroid game they released was Metroid Dread. Which was up for Game of the Year. So add that in that Metroid Prime remaster dropped this year and held a very strong 94 Metacritic rating. It's safe to assume that if Metroid Prime 4 is planning to release in 2024, it's probably a Game of the Year candidate. And as such, revealing its first ever gameplay at something like the Game Awards, where the last Metroid game was literally one of the Game of the Year candidates, could actually be in the cards. We can't rule out this distinct possibility. And again, it's a game already announced for Switch, technically. So we can speculate on Switch too with it. But reality is it's already been announced for Switch. So it could be a safe to show kind of game that's already known. It's on their financial reports every single time.  Maybe they were saving it for this event. Would be really cool heading into the next year knowing that we'd be getting Princess Peach Showtime and Metroid Prime 4 for sure. That would be pretty neat. Now the third and most unlikely really exciting thing Nintendo could announce, and if it happens, we get a fourth really exciting thing. We're talking about the reveal of Nintendo's next system. Now this isn't necessarily go super well for Xbox when they unveiled the Xbox Series X, but I don't know that the Game Awards are really to blame for that system not being as successful as it was. I mean, the Game Awards gave it a ton of attention and there was a lot of hype adding out of it, but it also was released in a year later. If Nintendo's system is actually going to come out in the next six months, a reveal of the Game Awards might actually be pretty exciting. And if it is revealed, there's a high likelihood the reveal would also be tied to the next major 3D Mario game getting shown off.  Considering Mario Wonder is up for game of the year this year, along with four other awards and likely one guaranteed win plus the Mario movies nominated as well, it just might be the right time to unveil said game which is reported to be the major launch game for Switch 2. But again, it's only going to reveal that Nintendo is ready to tease the Nintendo Switch 2 and we can't be 100% sure they are actually going to do that as they have never done such a thing at this type of event in the past. Though to be clear, the Game Awards is the one event every year that garners a significantly larger audience than Nintendo can garner on their own and they may view it as a prime marketing opportunity. After all, only once in the last decade has Nintendo chose not to use this venue as a marketing tool of some type and that was during a pandemic. Oh, and Nintendo happens to be the most nominated video game company at the entire show this year. So Nintendo's name and games are going to be constantly brought up all night long. Might be the perfect storm then to bring in the only announcement that could land hard right next to a likely reveal of Grand Theft Auto 6. This is a show that if you're going to bring it, you better bring it big. So yeah, if GTA 6 is being dropped here with the reveal trailer, the only other thing that could probably steal some spotlight would be the revealing of Nintendo's next system with a big Mario game. Of course, they could also do none of that. Nintendo mixes in different types of showings so it could be something else that they decide to show off because it's highly likely they show something. So what could there be instead? Well, obviously DLC is possible. While they expressly said there's no DLC for Tears of the Kingdom, Nintendo has told White Lies before to temper expectations and catch people off-guard. So yes, Tears of the Kingdom DLC technically could be announced and it's up for Game of the Year and other awards so it could make some sense. There could also be new DLC for games like Mario Wonder or even Pikmin 4. And by the way, we do have a big DLC coming for Splatoon 3 next year and they could just show a new trailer with that with all new content. Just keep in mind that they do have that DLC pack that they still need to advertise. So they might wait until the February direct but it is possible that they could happen here. Now, the other thing that could happen is an announcement of a new partner game just like when we got Brave 3 to Fall 2 and Bayonetta 3. So they could announce a new project with Platinum Games as an example or any of their other partner companies. Like who knows, a new Hyrule Warriors related to Tears of the Kingdom perhaps? After all, Hyrule Warriors Age of Calamity is the best-selling Warriors game of all time. So I could see where Koei Tecmo would probably really want to partner up again and they might have had a bigger heads up this time around. So maybe there's something planned there. It could be anything. It could be another partnership with Square Enix for something. So yeah, there's a lot of things that could be in that partner game and that's something obviously you guys can discuss for yourself. Anyways, look, that's what I got for you today. That's what I'm bringing to the table. You guys let me know what you think about all of that. I am Nathaniel Rovell Jans from Nintendo Prime and we'll catch you in the next video.


All right, let's get started. Thank you, everyone, for coming to our talk inside Knative Serving. I am Andrew Chen. I'm a program manager and a technical writer. And with me is Dominic Tornau, a principal engineer. So for the past year, we've been working together to try to figure out why Kubernetes is so hard to understand. When I started as a technical writer over two years ago, I was bombarded with terms such as control plane, data plane, Kubernetes object, controller, ingress, and the list goes on and on.  Was it because I didn't read all the source code? Who even has the time to do that? And do you even believe that it's possible to understand a software system without examining its source code? Well, Dominic showed me that there is another way. It's called systems modeling. So for the past year, we've been writing blog posts using formal and conceptual models to help people better understand how Kubernetes works so that they may reason about its behavior with confidence. So we are applying this methodology now to Knative Serving so that you may understand Knative better. And what makes this presentation a little different than others you may see is that we're not going to show you source code. We're not going to show you a console. We're not going to do a demo. We're just going to be showing you systems models. And yet you should still be able to walk away today with a crystal clear understanding of how Knative Serving works. And without further delay, here is Dominic Tornow to talk about Knative Serving. Thanks, Andrew. Thank you. If you heard of Knative before, you probably heard that Knative is a Kubernetes extension designed to manage serverless applications. This statement about Knative is correct. However, this statement does not describe Knative well. Knative is a Kubernetes extension. A Kubernetes extension is a collection of custom controllers and custom resource definitions that enable new use cases on top of Kubernetes. If you hear members of the Kubernetes community say, Kubernetes is a platform to build a platform, they're talking about Kubernetes extensions. Knative is, in fact, a collection of three Kubernetes extensions, Knative Build, Knative Serving, and Knative Eventing. In combination, Knative is not just a serverless extension, but it is a zero operations extension for reactive microservice applications hosted on Kubernetes. Zero ops, also called no ops, or more formally, operation automation, refers to the fact that most or all tasks which are required to operate an application are performed by the system, not performed by the developer. Today, we will discuss Knative Serving. In particular, we will discuss two aspects. Knative Serving is a zero operations extension for the lifecycle management of reactive microservices and Knative Serving as a serverless extension. To understand the benefits of Knative Serving, we need to shift our point of view from an architectural perspective to an operational perspective. From an architectural perspective, a reactive microservice is an individual, stateless component that processes individual requests. Microservices are located behind the gateway. The gateway is responsible for traffic management. The gateway acts as a reverse proxy, routing a request from a service consumer to the correct service provider. From an operational perspective, for each microservice, there exists at least one version, also called revision. In order to release the initial revision of a service, you have to perform two steps. First, you have to deploy the revision. To deploy a revision, you have to create a workload specification. A workload specification is a set of resources that specify how to process requests. And by the way, if you are thinking workload specification, that sounds like part specification. In essence, you are correct. Second, you have to roll out the revision. To roll out a revision, you have to create a traffic split specification. A traffic split specification is a set of resources that specify how to route requests. And now, if you are thinking traffic split specification, that sounds like ingress specification. Again, in essence, you are correct. Here, all traffic splits are probabilistic traffic splits. In order to release the next revision of a service, you have to repeat these steps. First, you have to deploy the new revision. Second, you have to roll out the revision. With a probabilistic traffic split, you have two options to do a rollout. You may choose an immediate rollout, or you may choose a gradual rollout. To perform an immediate rollout, you have to update the traffic split specification only once, shifting all requests from the current to the next revision in an instant. To perform a gradual rollout, you have to update the traffic split specification multiple times, shifting all requests from the current to the next revision over a period of time. As an operator of a microservice, you are locked in an endless, tedious cycle of deployments and rollouts. And if this dire situation does not ask for automation, nothing else does. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. So far, we talked about microservices, but we did not talk about Kubernetes, and we did not talk about Knative yet. Well, let's talk about Kubernetes first. Kubernetes is a prominent platform for hosting microservices. Kubernetes provides an extensive set of well-rounded abstractions to compose a microservice. However, Kubernetes does not provide a dedicated abstraction for a microservice. Simply put, Kubernetes gives us everything we need, but we have to piece everything together ourselves. And there are many options to choose from. Turns out the most prominent is also the most basic pattern. Here, one microservice is represented by composing four kinds of objects. A Kubernetes deployment, a Kubernetes horizontal port autoscaler, a Kubernetes service, and a Kubernetes ingress. Deployment and HPA represent the workload specification. Service and ingress represent the traffic split specification. In order to release the initial revision, the developer has to create a deployment object, a horizontal port autoscaler object, a service object, and an ingress object. In order to release a subsequent revision, the developer has to update the deployment object. Again, the basic pattern from an action's point of view. In order to release the initial revision of a microservice, the developer has to create a deployment object, a horizontal port autoscaler object, an ingress object, and a service object. In order to release a subsequent revision, the developer has to update the deployment object. This pattern is simple to implement and simple to operate. However, the developer has limited control over the rollout, that is, limited control over the traffic split specification. This diagram illustrates the mechanics of the traffic split specification of the basic pattern. Here we have one microservice that is currently in rollout. That is, traffic is shifted from deployment number one, replica set number one, to deployment number one, replica set number two. Kubernetes ingress directs all requests that are bound to one microservice, to one Kubernetes service. In turn, the Kubernetes service directs requests to matching parts with equal probability. In summary, traffic split is implicit in effect, determined solely by the Kubernetes service and dependent on the number of parts per replica set. For example, here, if there are three parts in replica set number one and three parts in replica set number two, the resulting traffic split is 50-50. To grant the developer full control over the traffic split specification, a more advanced pattern emerged. Here, again, one microservice is represented by composing four different kinds of objects, a Kubernetes deployment, a Kubernetes horizontal port autoscaler, a Kubernetes service, and an Istio virtual service. Deployment at HPA represent the workload specification. Service and virtual service represent the traffic split specification. In order to release the initial revision, the developer has to create a deployment object, a horizontal port autoscaler object, a service object, and an Istio virtual service object. In order to release a subsequent revision, the developer has to create a new deployment object, a new horizontal port autoscaler object, and a new service object and has to update the existing Istio virtual service object. Again, the advanced pattern from an action's point of view. In order to release the initial revision of a microservice, the developer has to create a deployment object, a horizontal port autoscaler object, a service object, and an Istio virtual service object. In order to release a subsequent revision, the developer has to create a new deployment object, a new horizontal port autoscaler object, a new service object, and has to update the existing Istio virtual service object. In case of an immediate rollout, the developer has to update the Istio virtual service only once. In case of a gradual rollout, the developer has to update the Istio virtual service multiple times. This pattern is still simple to implement, but way more involved to operate. However, the developer has full control over the rollout, that is, full control over the traffic split specification. This diagram illustrates the mechanics of the traffic split specification of the advanced pattern. Here, we have one microservice that is currently in rollout. That is, traffic is shifted from deployment number one, replica set number one, to deployment number two, replica set number one. Istio virtual service directs all requests that are bound to one microservice to a configurable set of Kubernetes services. In turn, the Kubernetes service directs requests to matching parts with equal probability. In summary, traffic split is explicit, in fact, determined solely by the Istio virtual service. So far, we had good news and we had bad news. The good news, Kubernetes is a convenient choice to implement microservice applications. The bad news, Kubernetes is not a convenient choice to operate microservice applications. You have to perform an involved repetitive sequence of steps for the initial release and every subsequent release. Well, meet Knative serving, finally. Knative serving automates a sequence of steps for the initial release and every subsequent release of your microservice. Knative provides a custom resource definition, the Knative service object that implements the advanced pattern and automates its operations. When you create a Knative service object, Knative automatically creates the initial deployment, the initial autoscaler, the initial service, and the Istio virtual service for you. Please note that Knative replaces the horizontal port autoscaler with a Knative port autoscaler. The Kubernetes horizontal port autoscaler scales instances based on metrics like CPU utilization or memory utilization. The Knative port autoscaler scales instances based on in-flight request count. In addition, the KPA can scale from end to zero. We will go into more detail in the next section of the presentation. When you update a Knative service object, Knative automatically creates the next deployment, the next autoscaler, and the next service and updates Istio virtual service for you. In conclusion, from an action's point of view, Knative reduces the operational burden on the developer. In order to release the initial revision of a microservice, the developer simply has to create a Knative serving object. In turn, Knative automatically creates a required set of objects. In order to release a subsequent revision, the developer simply has to update the Knative serving object. And in turn, Knative automatically creates and updates the required set of objects. Still, in case traffic is shifted immediately, the developer updates the Knative service once. In case traffic is shifted gradually, the developer updates the Knative service multiple times. Let's take a closer look at the mechanics of Knative. A Knative service object combines the workload and traffic split specification of your microservice. Ultimately, the workload specification is your part specification, specifying the image of your service. The traffic split specification is the Istio virtual service specification, specifying one revision or two revisions with a traffic split as your traffic target. For each Knative service, there exists exactly one Knative configuration. When the service object is created, a configuration object will be created with the service's initial workload specification. When the workload specification of the service object is updated, the configuration will be updated with the service's new workload specification. For each Knative configuration, there exists at least one Knative revision. When the configuration object is created, a revision object is created. the configuration's initial workload specification. When the configuration object is updated, a new revision object will be created with the configuration's new workload specification. Each revision results in a deployment, a Knative port autoscaler, and a service. In addition, for each Knative service, there exists a Knative route. When the service object is created, a route object will be created with the service's traffic split specification. When the traffic split specification of the service object is updated, the route object will be updated with the service's new traffic split specification. And ultimately, a route results in an Istio virtual service. Let's take a closer look at the workload specification of your service. As stated, the workload specification is a part specification. You have to specify one image called the user container image that contains your application, or more specifically, that contains a revision of your application. Your application must be an HTTP application processing HTTP requests. Knative injects another image into the part specification on creation of the deployment, called the queue container image. The queue container is a reverse proxy to the user container. The queue container intercepts all requests to the user container, and is responsible for collecting and reporting statistics, namely the in-flight request count to the auto scaler. Again, we will go into more detail in the next section of the presentation. So to release the initial revision of a microservice, the developer creates a Knative service object with an initial workload and an initial traffic split specification. In turn, Knative creates a Knative configuration object with a workload specification. In turn, Knative creates a Knative revision object with a workload specification. In turn, Knative creates a deployment object with a workload specification, a service, and a Knative auto scaler. Additionally, Knative creates a Knative route object with the initial traffic split specification. In turn, Knative creates an Istio virtual service with the traffic split specification. At this point, the initial revision is released and receiving 100% of requests. To release the next revision of a microservice, the developer updates the Knative service object here with an updated workload and an updated traffic split specification. Knative updates the configuration object and, in turn, creates a new revision object. Additionally, Knative updates the route object and, in turn, updates the virtual service. At this point, the next revision is deployed and receiving 100% of requests. So we could stop here and enjoy the sweet benefits of operation automation. However, Knative has one more trick up its sleeve. Knative serving is able to scale a revision from end to zero, an approach that is frequently called serverless computing. In a traditional environment, resources must be acquired before a request can be received. Simply put, in Kubernetes terms, if your pod is not up and running yet, your application cannot receive requests. In a serverless environment, resources may be acquired after a request has been received. In Kubernetes terms, even if your pod is not up and running yet, your application may already receive requests. Typical implementations of a serverless environment do not release resources after processing a request immediately. Instead, once acquired, resources are held in anticipation of additional requests for some period of time. Cold path refers to the situation where receiving a request and processing a request are separated by acquiring resources. Hot path refers to the situation where receiving a request and processing a request are not separated by acquiring resources. But how does Knative scale from end to zero? And if there is no pod who is listening to your requests, meet the Knative serving activator. For this walkthrough, I assume one Knative service, service number one, two revisions, revision number one and revision number two, and that the service is currently in rollout. That is, traffic is split between revisions. Currently, both revision number one and revision number two are scaled to zero. Now this is a fun part. When a request enters the system, the gateway inspects a request, determines a service, and selects a revision to process a request. Here, I assume the gateway selects revision number one. Since no instance of revision number one is running, requests to revision number one are on a cold path. The gateway is configured to forward the request to the activator. The activator buffers the original request and sends a request to the autoscaler to scale revision number one. The autoscaler sends a request to Kubernetes to increase the replica count of the deployment object corresponding to revision number one. Kubernetes creates a pod object and executes the queue and user container, therefore scaling from zero to one. The gateway is configured to forward future requests for revision number one directly to a pod of that revision bypassing the activator. The activator forwards a buffered original request to the queue container. The queue container forwards the original request to the user container for processing. In addition, the queue container sends a request to the autoscaler to increase the in-flight request count. Omitted in this animation, when the response of the user container is returned to the caller, the queue container sends another request to the autoscaler to decrease the in-flight request count. Now, to do this all over again, when a new request enters the system, the gateway inspects a request, determines a service, and selects a revision to process a request. Here, I assume the gateway selects revision number one again. Since an instance of revision number one is running, requests to revision number one are on a hot path. The gateway is configured to forward requests for revision number one directly to a pod of that revision bypassing the activator. Again, the queue container forwards the original request to the user container for processing. Again, the queue container sends a request to the autoscaler to increase the in-flight request count. If the number of in-flight requests passes a configurable threshold, the autoscaler sends a request to Kubernetes to increase the replica count of the deployment object corresponding to revision number one. Kubernetes creates additional pods and executes a queue and user container, here scaling from one to three. Ultimately, the same process takes place for revision number two. In summary, Knative is a zero operations extension for reactive microservice applications on Kubernetes. Within Knative, Knative serving is a zero operations extension for the lifecycle management of reactive microservice applications on Kubernetes. Knative serving provides a dedicated abstraction for a microservice and automates its operation. That is, it automates deployment and rollout. Additionally, Knative serving is a serverless extension. Knative serving is able to scale a microservice from and to zero instances in response to service requests. Thank you very much. With that, I hand back to Andrew. Thanks, Dominic. Thank you. Thanks, Dominic. That was great. So if you like how Dominic explained Knative serving, not just the content, please come and talk to us after the presentation. We'd love to hear your feedback. And I think we have some time for some questions. Just one second for the microphone to arrive. I want to ask, if I run application in Knative service, and which component to insurance that my applications is a high available? Because my application, perhaps, has some trouble. And it can be broken down in the Knative service container. So should I develop another application to fix this problem? Or the Knative has an internal mechanism to help me to do that? Knative actually does not address this problem. Knative falls back onto Kubernetes because a Knative service, or more specifically, a revision of a Knative service, ultimately translates into a deployment. So from there on, it inherits all the properties that the deployment exposes. And since Kubernetes deployment controller makes sure, or at least tries as much as it can, to bring up as many pods as specified in the replica account, Knative falls back onto the availability guarantees of Kubernetes. But the point stands and is correct. Kubernetes deployment does not give you a guarantee that it can scale to this point. It just gives you the guarantee it will keep trying. Knative does the same thing. Yeah, because our applications always was deployed in our production environment through the deployment workload and the state-side workload. But our application is a database system. So there are so many unstable problems will be happened in the container. So the Knative service is very convenient to us if we want to provide the database service to our customer. Actually, in that case, so Knative serving is specifically designed for reactive microservices that is stateless components that process HTTP requests. If a database is running in your container, then Knative serving is not the choice for you. It's not a solution. OK, thank you. You're welcome. Well, thank you. I'm a little bit confused with the concept with the cold path and the hot path. So here I'm confused about, like I say, it seems that Knative can sense first sense that there whether there is a rollout going on and then to put it into trigger that with a queue container. And then that means that to wait to finish that rollout and then do the scaling. So I mean, like I say, the rollout and scaling will they happen simultaneously? Or I'm a little bit confused about that. Thank you. I see. So actually, the queue container is not involved in cold path or hot path. The only component that is involved in cold path or hot path is the gateway and the activator. The ingress gateway is if there is no pod running, the ingress gateway is configured to forward a request to the activator. And then the activator will talk to the autoscaler to scale up. In the future, after a pod has been acquired, the gateway is reconfigured via the Istio virtual service to then direct requests directly to the pod. So this situation now, or actually the blue line, you can think of the blue line as the hot path. The queue container within the pod, its sole responsibility is to count statistics. So every time it receives a request, it increases the in-flight request count. And every time it returns a response, it decreases the in-flight request count. Thanks, sir. Super helpful. Please, we have one question over there. Thank you. There's some in the back. Hi. The gateway is configured to route certain requests to service one, revision one, and certain to revision two, while the rollout is happening, right? So now in the cold path, we had the first request come to revision one, and your user container came up. And now it's directly going to the queue container of service one, revision one. Now, say a request comes where the gateway has to route it to revision two, but the cold path is still enabled there. So to reduce the response time, does it route it to revision one? Meanwhile, no. No. Not to my knowledge. I mean, please do not quote me on that. But I am 99% sure. No, it does not. Right. So if we wish for us to have SLA of 99, like triple nine or something, and have lower response times, can we configure it to do that, though? I do not think that this is a possibility. No. It's a strictly probabilistic traffic split that does not take any other environmental conditions into account. Understood. All right. Thank you very much. I got the final warning, so I'm not sure I can take more questions up here on stage. But please do not hesitate. Come find us. We're going to hang out right in front of this room and are happy to answer any more questions. Thank you very much. Thanks for coming.


So what happens when we look at a model? We want to look at a table and a graph and symbols just like we've done before. But it's in a model situation. Well, if we're going to look at our table and our graph, we have to have our equations and our calculators. So we come over to our calculator and we put them in. 250 plus 1.15x, 50 plus 0.20x. Those are my two equations. And I want to look at the table. Now, I need to think about my table for a second here. Because it's talking about n is the number of flyers printed. They're probably going to have a lot of flyers. So I'm going to say let's go start it like maybe not maybe not 4,000. Let's say that is 1,000. And we can skip every maybe 500. We're going to get in the ballpark right now. We're not going to find exact answers. We're just getting in the ballpark kind of jumping around quickly. So second graph looks at my table. And I can see that y1, which is t of n, is greater than y2, which is d of n at 1,000. And the same thing for 1,500 and 2,000 and 2,500 and 3,000 and 3,500. And look here at 4,000. They're actually exactly the same. So I'm going to write that down so that I don't forget that. When x is equal to 4,000, then they are the same. So I'm looking at my table. Let's go back to 4,000. And since we know that's going to be where they're the same. And we can now go every one. And I'm going to look at my table. And after 4,000, I can see that y1 is just a little bit smaller than y2. 15 cents compared to 20 cents. If I go back the other direction, then it's y1 at 3,999. It's just a little bit more. It's 85 cents compared to 80 cents. So we can say that if we had 399 and then 4,000 and then 4,001, we'll make our comparisons here. Then for 399, it was 849.85. And the other one was 849.80. And for 4,000, they were both 850. While I have my red pen, I'll finish out the y2 column. And then this one is 850 and 20 cents. And for my green one, I had 850 or I guess I changed it to blue now. 850 and for 4,001, it was 850.15. So come up here and it's asking us, when will traditional be cheaper than digital? Or when will t of n be less than d of n? It'll be less when x is greater than 4,000 copies or flyers. Now let's look at the graph. We know that it's got to be 4,000 flyers. So when I go to set my window, so I went 5,000, so it wouldn't be right at 4,000. And I went every 100. Remember, I drop off a zero. And for the ys, it's 850. So I'm going to go up to 1,000. I know they're the same at 850. So I'm going to go to 1,000 so I can see more. Scale is 100 again. And then I can look at my graph. Okay, now we have to think about this. If this t of n has, this is the y intercept remember. So that's 250 compared to 50. So this top one right here, even though I can't label it t of n, and the bottom one is g of n. Right now, at the beginning of my graph, I see that t of n is greater than d of n because it's above the d of n graph, which means its ys are bigger. But I want to know where they intersect. So I can say that after the intersection point, then my t of n is below my d of n. So they're smaller values. That's when it's cheaper. So what is that intersection point? Just to remember, second trace, and then we choose five. And then we enter three times. And we find out they're certain enough that 4,000 copies, they both cost $850. So now all we have left to do is look at that symbolically. In symbols, t of n is 250 plus 0.15 n. And that's got to be less than d of n, which is 50 plus 0.20 n. You know me, I like to move the n's first.  So I'm going to subtract my 0.15 n. 250 is less than 50 plus 0.05. And when I subtract, that's a plus, not a t. I'm going to subtract my 50. So that gives me 200 is less than 0.05 n. And dividing my n as a positive. So I know my inequality stays the same. I have n on this side. And it's going to be 4,000 when I divide by 0.05. So again, n is greater than 4,000. Over here where I said x is equal to, that was my table. But really, the question asked for n. That should be an n. This one says n is greater than 4,000. This says n is greater than 4,000. They're both pointing to the 4,000.


The theme of the U.S. Army of American Bull is only the strongest of our colors. I want to thank my mom and my grandma. This is a very important part of a way in which the Army connects with the American people. I got selected for the U.S. Army Pro Football Hall of Fame Award for Excellence as a finalist, and I feel like it's a really great honor. Up, down, up, down. We spend many, many months in high schools talking to the youth of the country. And what these students represent that come to the All-American Bull is also what we require and need in the United States Army. Michelle, on behalf of the Secretary and Chief of Staff of the United States Army, it is my privilege and pleasure to welcome you to the U.S. Army 2013 All-American Marching Band. I would like to thank the U.S. Army for supporting my high school music. We go through a very deliberate process to select soldier heroes from across the United States Army, all units. We demonstrate their excellence in their Army strong character and traits and attributes with both the football players and the bands members. And it's a way in which we display our soldier strength through their personal presence here in San Antonio at this event. It gives us an opportunity to connect with America and to share with them the opportunities that we have, the importance of being physically, mentally and emotionally strong. The being of the U.S. Army All-American Bull is only the strongest where our colors. And I feel that, you know, it's in your heart is how much you will miss sacrifice on the field.


Yeah, Microsoft. So I think we've talked about this. We've talked about this. And let me just get there. We've talked about this in the past, kind of the Linda Kahn's, you know, just campaign against a big tech and the idea of breaking them up and the idea of using antitrust against them. Lena, not Linda, Lena Kahn at FTC. And one of the things that Lena Kahn has done is she sued Microsoft to try to stop the merger with, what is it, what's it called? Activision Blizzard, which is the big gaming company that actually has, what is it, on call, duty, on duty. As a non-gamer, I don't even know what the game is called. But Activision, you know, owns this call of duty, sorry, call of duty and World of Warcraft, which are these two massive games that have made Activision this massive, incredible company. Anyway, FTC sued in court and just a judge court in San Francisco ruled against the FTC. How cool is that? And basically approved that the deal could go on. The deal will close here soon unless the government appeals it. And there is an injunction at the higher level. But it does look like this will go through. The FTC is considering its options right now. Anytime we can defeat Lena Kahn, that is a plus. Anytime the FTC is defeated, that is a plus. Anytime antitrust take a beating, that is a plus. So this is great news. And I know some of you hate Microsoft, but I don't. And this is great news. The deal was teetering also because, and I made a mistake the other day when I said that it was that it was European Union that was blocking the deal. But it wasn't. It was actually the British English courts, the English regulatory agency was blocking the deal. But yesterday, when the court came out with his opinion, the English regulators basically said, okay, we will re-evaluate Microsoft withdrew from its suit suing the regulatory agency and is now negotiating with the British regulators to get the deal approved. So it looks like the deal would go through in the UK, in Europe, in the United States, and Microsoft will be able to buy this company. Whether that's good for gaming markets or not, I don't know. One of the issues was the fear, the call of duty would be only, Microsoft would only allow it to be played on Microsoft products, right, on the Microsoft gaming platform. Microsoft said it's got long-term contracts with both Nintendo and Sony, and it's ridiculous. It makes so much money from this through Activision. Why would it do that? And the court seems to believe Microsoft basically said FTC provided no evidence that Microsoft intended to supposedly monopolize this game on its own platform. So we will see. It doesn't really matter from my perspective. They can monopolize it. It's their product. They can decide who gets it, who doesn't get it. They can decide on the terms. So again, good news. Anytime the FTC is defeated, that is good news.


Now, in the District 2A representative race, Republican Matt Grussell is facing D.F.E.L.R. Jerry Loud. The candidates tonight discuss many topics, including the Minsher website and health care. It has cost the taxpayers millions of dollars, and in order to make that right, in order to get that straightened out, we need to take Minsher and get rid of it completely. That's the way I feel about it. And that will save several million dollars, at least $23 million over three years. It is a mess, and so we do need to fix Minsher. In the Affordable Care Act, there is a provision in Section 1332, which provides Minnesota to create an innovative way to fix this system. If you've enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Lakeland Public Television.


Oh sing and sinner nice. I should fire Vic Why I keep trying that pass against him, bro. I swear it's open Yeah, Leon, he just send like seven six seven people every play So I'm just trying to quick snap and run flood verticals some easy quick reads But I know that cuz I played them Eight ten times this year. So Now this is the second time I'm playing his his crab offense, bro We haven't done this honestly. So I really just want to run like we have one of these nice, okay Why I'm on the ground dude like what the come on man Everything about this offense that this under center is just so nasty, dude Keep running like what am I playing right now, dude? All right, dude I just like bro like dude cuz he's like low-key running on me, dude Like what is going on right now, man? Hackle him man. Come on.  Come on.  Scared I put everything on the roll out made him pass under center. Yeah, I put zero yard flats. I mean come on, dude Can we not guard that like can we not guard a wheel route? Can we not do it? Oh?    Oh My god, man, how do you still play Madden like what are you doing?  Oh I'm trying to control the clock.  I thought goal line would contain I really did I don't know what happened. I was prepared to do the ball away really I thought he had I thought he would have two yellow zones and two flat zones and blitz everybody Well, I came out and goal line before he called time out.   I really don't know how to stop I don't know what to do against this this terrible defense dude.  Yo, he's in such shambles right now, dude. Yo, he's in shambles, dude Drop the ball. Thank you, bro. Oh my god. I'm slow the game bum Yeah No, it's a Kobe the man, bro. We just got a little baggie right there boys. We got a little baggie right there I'm just saying we got a little baggie.  No, I don't think he's lurking. He would have had to he would have had to sit here and wait for an hour Bro, he's not lurking me, dude.  I need like some faster players boys. I'm gonna be honest right now, dude Let's go man.  Why am I double teaming him, bro? Thank you, bro. I mean, I'm getting his stick But that's part of the game, bro. You're not getting his stick. Are you really playing? Come on edge. You got run, bro. I mean god.  Man, I'm in my place.  Are you kidding me? Tell you it's impossible Impossible to scramble up the middle in this game, dude. He was open dude. Why are we not containing right there, dude? Come on, man. They're my zero-yard purple zones, dude. Where are they? This ain't though. This ain't the defense, bro I got a magazine spam. See, I want to click it in and make them chase it But bro, he just I Got a spam the right stick, but it's gonna send somebody a man covers.  That's what I need to see out to contain, bro. This won't be bad, ain't it? Yeah, and there's just hot like bro like where the Bro, they just don't contain on their center.  I don't know.  I just like can't stop this dude, bro I gotta play man to man, dude I honestly don't know. I honestly don't know what to do, bro. This is just the nastiest in the world, dude Like I'm telling you bro.  I can't bro like There's no way. That's not an interception man. Come on man. Thank you.  I gotta click in the right stick, bro. This is my fault I gotta click in the right stick better than I'm doing bro Man, good play bro. You just cannot cover these tight ends, bro See what I mean? That's why you can't spam the stick in because it's sent the dude on a streak Oh my god So I'll put a zero yard cloud and then you could just spare.  I'm like, all right.    No, no motion is doing anything. No, I clicked in the stick to send the guy And why boom here we are Come on, man. Dude. Vic just sucks, bro Oh my god Oh, thank god Why do I press a my tight ends always a that's why I pressed a My tight end is always just Kyle Pitts is always a or my tight ends Stupid. All right. Come on. We gotta stop here. Come on. We get a stop. We get a stop My tight end is always a and flat. That's my fault. I'm not used to doing that delay rope Man, I mean, dude, how are we getting just mocked like this Randy Moss?  This is how people like this little Has to do the score. This is what they have to do Y'all I'm just gonna scramble and just run but and throw the ball to people, bro Vic is dog. Bro All right, come on, man. Thank you. Good good work Fumble. Oh, come on, man. I'm gonna I'm gonna use a rush right right here. I'm blitzing everybody Please don't make that throw.   I think he rolls left here at all Yep Nice. I needed that. That's what I need once on the wall.  Like what is that game?  I cannot stop that Like bro, it's just like on the run five people in his face. He's just making that throw Just I can't bro. I just like it really is Fumble the ball Man, I guess just it's just I bro. I just like it's the worst in the world Peck. Thank you, man.  You've just fallen on the ground I don't think I'm putting contains anymore. I really don't I think I knew philosophy Yes, sir We're never containing because he can run around because the contains I don't know I don't know I don't know what to do, dude Sometimes contains work. Sometimes they don't I wish I could like build my team for this scheme Like I would have like better players than I have See, I would tell you I think corner blitz is a great idea. This might be a touchdown Honestly, boys No, if he rolled the safety and he rolled the other safety could play I think he goes coverage here boys. I'm taking a guess though Good game that let's go, man. That's how you guess how you know people You make the right identification at the line. I felt it. I felt coverage went coverage GG's. Come on, man. Vic is the best. That was the worst fold ever. All right, bro. I don't know I need to make some new philosophies, bro


just working on a new segment of our combat television series. You know, the popularity of this weekly show proves that World War II still has a very firm hold on the minds and the memories and the imagination of the American people as it should. It was the greatest war this nation has ever fought, and it brought sweeping changes in the techniques and the tools of war itself. But despite the dramatic changes, World War II confirmed what every war before it had demonstrated. But the soldier is the ultimate of all weapons. He is the soldier, the G.I. himself. He is the ultimate weapon in the American army, but still he must be put in its proper perspective, for none of his wars has a soldier existed or fought in a vacuum, facing the enemy only with his own cunning and his own fists and his own stout heart. He has always had a lot of other things going for him besides superior tactical concepts, superior training, superior equipment. The American G.I. in all his triumphs was the sum of all of these. And so he is today in an army sharpened and strengthened by technological advance. The soldier still is the ultimate weapon, the one indispensable quotient in the equation of military supremacy. But the fruits of technology's continuing revolution have increased his fighting potential to a degree scarcely imagined by the generations of men who served before him. So the American fighting men today, like those in the long tradition which culminates in him, is effective not only for what he is, but also what is represented in his stance of readiness. The training which shapes him, the organization which guides him, and the logistical effort which provides him with more power than any soldier has had in the history of arms. Our story for today deals with one vital facet of the overall effort, the test and evaluation of weapons and equipment to assure that the American soldier receives only the best, to maintain in short the validity of a soldier's warranty. The test and evaluation program to provide today's soldier with arms and equipment is geared to the momentum of the forward thrust of technology to make sure the soldier's warranty stays good. For what's at stake is the ability of the United States Army to maintain a position of superior strength in order to carry out its vital mission of deterring war by being prepared to fight and win if war should come. As industrial science rolls up new discoveries which make possible new equipment which in turn would increase the Army's effectiveness, those very items become vital to the Army's strength and to the nation's security. So they must be moved as quickly as possible from the drawing board to the assembly line and then to the field and all of it. All of the advanced and sophisticated machinery of modern war must reach the field with the full assurance that it operates precisely as it's supposed to operate when it's put into the hands of the soldier who will use it. There's only one way this assurance can be given by testing the material itself, every item designed and developed for Army use, testing it under conditions as close as possible to those of actual combat. This all-important job of testing is the responsibility of the U.S. Army's Test and Evaluation Command. Headquartered at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, the Test and Evaluation Command is relatively new to the Army. It was born in 1962 in a reorganization designed to streamline the structure of the Army and adapt it more closely to the changing conditions of the time. The result is an organization of more than 20,000 soldiers and civilians working with facilities in installations which extend across the nation and from the tropics to the Arctic, all assembled into one great complex devoted to an extensive and objective evaluation of all material proposed for use by the Army. Operations, mission, and facilities are closely related. Some of the installations are major testing ranges and proving grounds. Here the prototypes of new equipment are given their first major tests to determine how they perform outside the laboratory in a field environment. Called engineering tests, these are conducted by teams of military and civilian engineers and technicians. Although the conditions of testing are controlled, they simulate the severity of tactical environments. This is the XM656. It's being developed to satisfy the need for a vehicle which can carry cargo, personnel, and weapons. The engineering tests of this vehicle are representative of those given others of its class and type. To do the job it's supposed to do, this vehicle has to be able to do a lot of rough traveling, carrying its payload over all kinds and conditions of terrain, through mud and sand and snow, up hills and down, and across rough country. And it has to be able to swim besides. Theoretically, of course, this is all quite possible. That's why the vehicle was developed in the first place. As soon as advancements in automotive engineering had demonstrated the feasibility of producing it. But the step from feasibility to performance is a long one. That step is taken in the engineering tests given on Aberdeen specially designed courses, where the XM656 faces some seven tests, simulating conditions which it was designed to meet. How well it performs and measures up to specifications is determined by appropriate instrumentation. Before they're completed, the engineering tests on the XM656 will determine a lot more than the ability of the vehicle to take rough traveling. Its maintenance, its transportability, these and more will be evaluated. Not all Army material, of course, gets the same kind of going over in their engineering tests. A cargo carrier has to be able to do one kind of thing, a rifle has to do another, a missile another, a tank another. But every item, every single item in the Army's arsenal is developed to meet certain specifications and the engineering tests for each determine whether or not those specifications are met. Other major centers for engineering tests are White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, but some guided missiles are tested. The electronics proven ground at Fort Wachuka, Arizona, testing center for electronic warfare equipment and other items involved in communications, combat surveillance, avionics, meteorology, and automatic data processing. Dugway Proving Ground in Utah, where engineering tests determine the effectiveness of items in the field of chemical, biological, and radiological warfare. At Jefferson Proving Ground in Indiana and at Erie Proving Ground in Ohio, acceptance testing is conducted on production munitions. A tenant at Edwards Air Force Base in California, the Army Aviation Test Activity performs engineering flight tests on Army aircraft and associated equipment. Despite their exhaustive and rigorous demands, the engineering tests are not the only ones which are given. For these are tests under controlled conditions and the scientists and engineers who conduct them although their experts in their field are not the men who will be using the equipment. The ultimate weapon, the soldier himself, is the user. So in other installations around the country, all new items of material are subjected to rigorous tactical type tests by troops in the field under conditions as close as feasible to those of actual combat. These are called service tests. They're designed to determine how the equipment actually stands up in the hands of the troops who will use it and also how compatible the equipment and the soldier are. At Fort Bragg, North Carolina, the Airborne Electronics and Special Warfare Board conducts service tests on a number of varied items. Equipment used in special warfare, that involved in airdrop and air transport, certain items pertaining to combat surveillance, and field army automatic data processing equipment, and it also tests communications for the field army. This is a piece of communications equipment which illustrates the army's exploitation of technological advances. It's the transmitter of a miniature lightweight radio set designed to give the squad leader in the battle area radio contact with his men. Up to this time, radio communications has been possible only down as far as the squad. For communication with his own men, the squad leader has had to rely on hand signal or voice. But this handheld transmitter with its telescopic antenna is intended to carry his voice as far as a mile. Service testing is also conducted at Fort Knox, Kentucky, where the armor board evaluates armored vehicles and equipment and some engineer material in terms of the men who use it. Fort Sill, Oklahoma, home of the artillery board, where troops test artillery weapons and accompanying equipment. Fort Benning, Georgia, where the infantry board makes a similar kind of evaluation on weapons and other equipment used by infantry units and personnel. Fort Rucker, Alabama, where the Army Aviation Board conducts service tests on army aircraft and allied army aviation equipment. Fort Bliss, Texas, where the Air Defense Board conducts service tests on weapons and other types of equipment used for air defense. Fort Lee, Virginia, is headquarters for the general equipment test activity. The items tested here include quartermaster material, which dictate a somewhat different testing pattern. For quartermaster material, actually means the soldier's own personal equipment, what he eats and wears, what he needs to live with. Consequently, both engineering and service testing are conducted on these items. The general equipment test activity is also responsible for the testing of rail equipment and vehicles and material related to transportation. In both engineering and service testing, there's yet another determination to be made, the effect of environment. Its mission today requires that the Army be prepared to meet any contingency, to fight any aggressor under any conditions and in any part of the world. So must the Army's weapons and equipment. Normally, it's not logistically feasible to compartmentalize them, to develop some items for use in cold regions and others for hot areas. What the soldier uses must be as versatile as himself and as adaptable to environmental extremes. Therefore, the material has to be tested in those extremes. No weather laboratory has ever been built which can duplicate nature's own. So the Army has taken advantage of the facilities nature offers. Included in TCOM's organization are three major environmental test centers where material of all kinds can be evaluated against some of the worst of weather's effects. In the Panama Canal zone, the Army's tropic test center studies the effects of the muggy heat of the jungle. At Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona, tests are made in the intense dry heat in the sands of the desert. At Fort Greeley, Alaska, the Army Arctic Test Center evaluates equipment in the bitter cold of the Arctic. Testing of Army material does not begin or end with the engineering and service tests which TCOM conducts. For testing is a continuing, never-ending process. It begins in the laboratory. Laboratory is all over the country where dedicated scientists keep a constant search going for new secrets which can be exploited to the Army's benefit for lightweight metals and plastics, materials of all kinds, new systems, new techniques which will reduce the Army's load or increase its speed, improve its voice or augment its power. This adventure within the laboratory is not within the test and evaluation commands area of responsibility, but it's well within its area of interest. And TCOM personnel are kept aware of every stage of an item's development from laboratory breakthrough to industrial fabrication. The test and evaluation commands participation in the testing picture can actually begin earlier than the engineering tests. As a service to the developer when he requires it, TCOM uses its facilities, its personnel, and its know-how to conduct some of the tests called engineered design tests, which must be satisfactorily completed before the engineering tests are undertaken. TCOM becomes involved in other kinds of testing, too. For instance, its evaluation against predefined standards of the prototypes developed by three manufacturers competing to produce a new light observation helicopter for the Army. Even after an item has passed all its tests and becomes part of the Army's inventory, it still is subject to periodic examination. Ammunition, for instance, is tested regularly to make sure the time brings no deterioration in quality. The test and evaluation command then, in effect, is involved with an item of Army material during its entire life cycle, involved in a program of testing so exhaustive and so complete that no deficiency should escape detection. TCOM does not attempt to correct whatever defects it uncovers in equipment and tests. Its responsibility is only to discover and report them. This spectacular equipment offers an example. It's called the Mobile Floating Assault Bridge Ferry and is made up of components which are self-contained units designed to travel with armored columns and provide them with the capability for water crossing. Where just a few vehicles must cross, the units connect in the water to form a self-propelled 60-ton ferry. In larger-scale operations where it's necessary to move a continuous column across a river, the units can form a 60-ton capacity bridge. 16 units, thus joined, can form a 400-foot bridge structure in less than one hour as compared to the five hours which would normally take some 400 men to construct a 400-foot pontoon bridge. In the tests conducted in the water, everything worked fine. But on land, trouble developed. A joint in the driveshaft which permits the wheel to retract into the hull when the units in the water fail during the road test and immobilize the unit. But as soon as the trouble was discovered, it was reported to the developer who immediately took action to correct it so the Army could have its sorely needed bridge equipment as quickly as possible. Not all endings are so happy. Sometimes testing reveals defects in an item that subsequent development proves cannot be corrected. Whenever this happens, the defective item does not reach the Army's inventory. For it's certain that no soldier in the United States Army will ever be issued any weapon or item of equipment until it can be turned over to him with full confidence that it works and that it's safe. In this certainty lives the spirit of TECOM's mission. But the story of TECOM is not yet complete. For essentially that story is how this vast complex stretching across a continent and embracing facilities that span the spectrum of the conditions of combat, how all this is brought into operation in the testing of one item. This is the Pershing ballistic missile. Now an invaluable weapon in the arsenal of the field Army. The record of what this weapon and all its components went through at White Sands Missile Range, the U.S. Army Artillery Board, Aberdeen Proving Ground, and in Alaska, before the final stamp of approval was put on it, sums up generally how all the diverse elements and facilities are tied together into a cohesive testing pattern. So the same. The number of them and the length of the testing cycle are variables which depend on the requirements for each item. But thoroughness is a constant. These are programs and plans prepared by the Test and Evaluation Command for weapons and other equipment, now undergoing tests or soon to begin. These were drawn up long before the first prototypes were out of the developer's plant, and other similar to these are being prepared right now in TECOM headquarters. In all of these, thoroughness designed to determine that the item meets the requirements of the soldier who will use it. That kind of thoroughness is the basic demand upon which the test plan is built. Centralizing and directing all this planning in one headquarters makes it possible to develop a general format for testing, which is based on thoroughness. Techniques made possible by centralized direction such as early preparation and coordination of plans and concurrent testing result in an assurance of adequate and proper testing, elimination of unnecessary duplication, and an overall increase in efficiency. And these in turn reduce the lead time from development to production. Which means that critical equipment reaches the field in the shortest possible time. The payoff is with the American soldier, the man on whom we all put our hope and faith. His job is a big one. His responsibilities as he keeps his watch during this long night of uncertainty and danger are enormous. He deserves the best. And the job of the United States Army's test and evaluation command is to help see that he gets it.