Thursday, May 28, 2015

Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Router Placement

"The best place to put your router, according to physics"

Deep Learning Update

"New 'deep learning' technique enables robot mastery of skills via trial and error"

Thursday, May 21, 2015

Question Of The Day

Question of the day from Tyler Cowen and Alex Tabarrok:

"Should the Minimum Wage be called the 'Robot Employment Act'?"

Wednesday, May 20, 2015

Watson Update

Interesting update on what IBM's Watson has been doing.

From GMSV:
Now, IBM tells New York Magazine, Watson has been “applied in 75 industries in 17 countries, and tens of thousands of people are using its applications in their own work.” Watson has written a recipe book, is working as a Wall Street analyst, been trained in molecular biology, and dabbled in oil exploration. One company is reportedly using Watson to create a dinosaur toy that talks and responds to its owner.

Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Monday, May 18, 2015

Sunday, May 17, 2015

Light Posting

Admin note: Again, posting may be irregular for the rest of this week due to external obligations.

"Living" Concrete

CNN: "The 'living concrete' that can heal itself"

Hollywood Linguist

"How the Languages in Game of Thrones, Defiance, and Thor Were Created"

Thursday, May 14, 2015

Moore's Law Turns 50

NYT has a nice interview with Gordon Moore: "Moore's Law Turns 50".

It's amazing the progress we've made in that time. Plus I liked this tidbit at the end:
“The importance of the Internet surprised me,” said Moore. “It looked like it was going to be just another minor communications network that solved certain problems. I didn’t realize it was going to open up a whole universe of new opportunities, and it certainly has. I wish I had predicted that.”

Wolfram Image ID

"Wolfram's New AI Will Try to Identify Any Image You Give It".

Eventually, something like this will make radiologists like me obsolete. (Via H.R.)

Tuesday, May 12, 2015

Sunday, May 10, 2015

Humans Still (Barely) Better Than Robots At Poker

"Poker Pros Win Man vs. Machine Showdown - But Not by Much".

Alex Tabarrok also notes:
The computer bluffed and bet against the best poker players the world has ever known and over 80,000 hands the humans were not able to discover an exploitable flaw in the computer’s strategy.  Thus, a significant win for the computer.  Moreover, the computers will get better at a faster pace than the humans.

Self-Driving Semi Truck

"The Very First Self-Driving Semi Truck Has Hit the Road"

1690s Advice Column Questions

"The Questions People Asked Advice Columnists in the 1690s"

Thursday, May 07, 2015

Tim Urban Talks With Elon Musk

Fun interview with Elon Musk by Tim Urban of WaitButWhy.

Tech Support Tales

"'In The Shower Eating Cherries' and More Tales of Nightmare IT Calls"

Wednesday, May 06, 2015

Uber for Doctor Housecalls

NYT: "An Uber for Doctor Housecalls". (Via H.R.)

Words The English Language Needs

"Fantastic words with no easy translation in other languages".

My favorite:
TretÃ¥r (Swedish): On its own, “tÃ¥r” means a cup of coffee and “patÃ¥r”  is a refill, so “tretÃ¥r” is a second refill, or a “threefill.

Tuesday, May 05, 2015

Monday, May 04, 2015