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LeopoldS

Global Innovation Commons - 4 views

www.globalinnovationcommons.org

innovation open IP

shared by LeopoldS on 31 Oct 09 - Cached
LeopoldS liked it
  • LeopoldS on 31 Oct 09
     
    nice initiative!
  • ...6 more comments...
  • Ma Ru on 31 Oct 09
     
    Any viral licence is a bad license...
  • Francesco Biscani on 31 Oct 09
     
    I'm pretty confident I'm about to open a can of worms, but mind explaining why? :)
  • LeopoldS on 01 Nov 09
     
    I am less worried about the can of worms ... actually eager to open it ... so why????
  • Francesco Biscani on 01 Nov 09
     
    Well, the topic GPL vs other open-source licenses (e.g., BSD, MIT, etc.) is old as the internet and it has provided material for long and glorious flame wars. The executive summary is that the GPL license (the one used by Linux) is a license which imposes some restrictions on the way you are allowed to (re)use the code. Specifically, if you re-use or modify GPL code and re-distribute it, you are required to make it available again under the GPL license. It is called "viral" because once you use a bit of GPL code, you are required to make the whole application GPL - so in this sense GPL code replicates like a virus. On the other side of the spectrum, there are the so-called BSD-like licenses which have more relaxed requirements. Usually, the only obligation they impose is to acknowledge somewhere (e.g., in a README file) that you have used some BSD code and who wrote it (this is called "attribution clause"), but they do not require to re-distribute the whole application under the same license. GPL critics usually claim that the license is not really "free" because it does not allow you to do whatever you want with the code without restrictions. GPL proponents claim that the requirements imposed by the GPL are necessary to safeguard the freedom of the code, in order to avoid being able to re-use GPL code without giving anything back to the community (which the BSD license allow: early versions of Microsoft Windows, for instance, had the networking code basically copy-pasted from BSD-licensed versions of Unix). In my opinion (and this point is often brought up in the debates) the division pro/against GPL mirrors somehow the division between anti/pro anarchism. Anarchists claim that the only way to be really free is the absence of laws, while non-anarchist maintain that the only practical way to be free is to have laws (which by definition limit certain freedoms). So you can see how the topic can quickly become inflammatory :) GPL at the current time is used by aro
  • Francesco Biscani on 01 Nov 09
     
    whoa, the comment got cut off. Anyway, I was just saying that at the present time the GPL license is used by around 65% of open source projects, including the Linux kernel, KDE, Samba, GCC, all the GNU utils, etc. The topic is much deeper than this brief summary, so if you are interested in it, Leopold, we can discuss it at length in another place.
  • LeopoldS on 01 Nov 09
     
    Thanks for the record long comment - am sure that this is longest ever made to an ACT diigo post! On the topic, I would rather lean for the GPL license (which I also advocated for the Marek viewer programme we put on source forge btw), mainly because I don't trust that open source is by nature delivering a better product and thus will prevail but I still would like to succeed, which I am not sure it would if there were mainly BSD like licenses around. ... but clearly, this is an outsider talking :-)
  • LeopoldS on 01 Nov 09
     
    btw: did not know the anarchist penchant of Marek :-)
  • Ma Ru on 01 Nov 09
     
    Well, not going into the discussion about GPL/BSD, the viral license in this particular case in my view simply undermines the "clean and clear" motivations of the initiative authors - why should *they* be credited for using something they have no rights for? And I don't like viral licences because they prevent using things released under this licence to all those people who want to release their stuff under a different licence, thus limiting the usefulness of the stuff released on that licence :) BSD is not a perfect license too, it also had major flaws And I'm not an anarchist, lol
jcunha

Cloud cities for Venus exploration - 3 views

spectrum.ieee.org/...d-cities-for-venus-exploration

science space FUN technology

shared by jcunha on 19 Dec 14 - No Cached
Paul N liked it
  • jcunha on 19 Dec 14
     
    Our friends from NASA have come out with a plan to the human exploration of Venus in the time that everyone is speaking about Mars.
  • Ma Ru on 24 Dec 14
     
    Love the concept acronym, which pretty much says it all... Not sure which astronaut would fancy floating around in an atmosphere where clouds are made of sulphuric acid. Besides I don't see the point of a manned mission if one can't reach the surface.. tele-operation would be easy and so much cheaper.
annaheffernan

Plasmons excite hot carriers - 1 views

physicsworld.com/...plasmons-excite-hot-carriers

science PHY

shared by annaheffernan on 11 Jul 14 - No Cached
  • annaheffernan on 11 Jul 14
     
    The first complete theory of how plasmons produce "hot carriers" has been developed by researchers in the US. The new model could help make this process of producing carriers more efficient, which would be good news for enhancing solar-energy conversion in photovoltaic devices.
  • LeopoldS on 13 Jul 14
     
    I did not read the paper but what is further down written in the article, does not give much hope that this actually gives much more insight than what we had nor that it could be used in any way to improve current PV cells soon: e.g. "To fully exploit these carriers for such applications, researchers need to understand the physical processes behind plasmon-induced hot-carrier generation. Nordlander's team has now developed a simple model that describes how plasmons produce hot carriers in spherical silver nanoparticles and nanoshells. The model describes the conduction electrons in the metal as free particles and then analyses how plasmons excite hot carriers using Fermi's golden rule - a way to calculate how a quantum system transitions from one state into another following a perturbation. The model allows the researchers to calculate how many hot carriers are produced as a function of the light frequency used to excite the metal, as well as the rate at which they are produced. The spectral profile obtained is, to all intents and purposes, the "plasmonic spectrum" of the material. Particle size and hot-carrier lifetimes "Our analyses reveal that particle size and hot-carrier lifetimes are central for determining both the production rate and the energies of the hot carriers," says Nordlander. "Larger particles and shorter lifetimes produce more carriers with lower energies and smaller particles produce fewer carriers, but with higher energies."
jcunha

First Terahertz Amplifier "Goes to 11" - 2 views

spectrum.ieee.org/...ilds-first-terahertz-amplifier

technology

shared by jcunha on 06 Nov 14 - No Cached
LeopoldS liked it
  • jcunha on 06 Nov 14
     
    Guinness World Record breaking, "first radio amplifier operating at terahertz frequencies could lead to communications systems with much higher data rates, better radar, high-resolution imaging that could penetrate smoke and fog, and better ways of identifying dangerous substances, say the researchers who built it". Built from HEMTs (High Electron Mobility Transistors) made of InP (Indium Phosphide), this is a new milestone on the road to the THz applications.
LeopoldS

breaktrough in supercaps - 2 views

spectrum.ieee.org/...supercharge-mobile-electronics

shared by LeopoldS on 01 Oct 15 - No Cached
  • LeopoldS on 01 Oct 15
     
    is this the breaktrough that we were waiting for?
  • Thijs Versloot on 02 Oct 15
     
    That depends on what application you are thinking of. For circuit board electronics this will allow integration of micro sized supercapacitors to provide operational power. They will have to be fed by external batteries still, but the close proximity allows for better tailored power demands. They also propose tapping into thermal/mechanical energy to charge the supercaps. In the end, they can provide significant specific power (W/kg) but you still need to upscale the production to cover large areas to also gain high specific energy (Wh/kg). This breakthough is for micro sized applications, not for replacement of large scale energy storage (electric vehicles, satellites) going up to kWh. That said, I know of several studies in supercaps at ESA, but they are still qualifying current relatively old commercial solutions.
Daniel Hennes

NASA Funds Electricity-Harvesting Robotic Space Eel With Explosive Jet Thrusters and El... - 3 views

spectrum.ieee.org/...y-harvesting-robotic-space-eel

shared by Daniel Hennes on 19 May 15 - No Cached
  • Daniel Hennes on 19 May 15
     
    This concept for a "soft-robotic rover with electrodynamic power scavenging" comes from Cornell University, and NASA has awarded it a grant under the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program to hoist itself up from TRL 1 to TRL 2.
jcunha

New laser to shine light on remote sensing - 3 views

phys.org/...2016-04-laser-remote.html

technology laser remote sensing infrared

shared by jcunha on 06 Apr 16 - No Cached
LeopoldS liked it
  • jcunha on 06 Apr 16
     
    A revolutionary new type of laser (fiber laser) is promising major advances in remote sensing of greenhouse gases.The new laser can operate (bed tuned) over a large range within the infrared light spectrum.
  • LeopoldS on 07 Apr 16
     
    Reads too good to be true .... where is Isabelle when we need her ? :-)
mkisantal

Better Language Models and Their Implications - 1 views

blog.openai.com/better-language-models

AI

shared by mkisantal on 15 Feb 19 - No Cached
  • mkisantal on 15 Feb 19
     
    Just read some of the samples of text generated with their neural networks, insane.
  • ...3 more comments...
  • mkisantal on 15 Feb 19
     
    "Pérez and his friends were astonished to see the unicorn herd. These creatures could be seen from the air without having to move too much to see them - they were so close they could touch their horns. While examining these bizarre creatures the scientists discovered that the creatures also spoke some fairly regular English. Pérez stated, "We can see, for example, that they have a common 'language,' something like a dialect or dialectic."
  • Marcus Maertens on 15 Feb 19
     
    Shocking. I assume that this could indeed have severe implications if it gets in the "wrong hands".
  • marliesarnhof on 18 Feb 19
     
    "Feed it the first few paragraphs of a Guardian story about Brexit, and its output is plausible newspaper prose, replete with "quotes" from Jeremy Corbyn, mentions of the Irish border, and answers from the prime minister's spokesman." https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=37&v=XMJ8VxgUzTc "Feed it the opening line of George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four - "It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen" - and the system recognises the vaguely futuristic tone and the novelistic style, and continues with: "I was in my car on my way to a new job in Seattle. I put the gas in, put the key in, and then I let it run. I just imagined what the day would be like. A hundred years from now. In 2045, I was a teacher in some school in a poor part of rural China. I started with Chinese history and history of science." (https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/feb/14/elon-musk-backed-ai-writes-convincing-news-fiction)
  • marliesarnhof on 18 Feb 19
     
    It's really lucky that it was OpenAI who made that development and Elon Musk is so worried about AI. This way at least they try to assess the whole spectrum of abilities and applications of this model before releasing the full research to the public.
  • mkisantal on 18 Feb 19
     
    They released a smaller model, I got it running on Sandy. It's fairly straight forward: https://github.com/openai/gpt-2
hannalakk

Jumping Robot Salto-1P Now Goes Where You Tell It To - 6 views

spectrum.ieee.org/...jumping-robot-salto1p

technology science robotics

shared by hannalakk on 31 Oct 18 - No Cached
  • hannalakk on 31 Oct 18
     
    Meet Salto-1P
  • Dario Izzo on 31 Oct 18
     
    almost cute!
jaihobah

Quantum Blockchains Could Act Like Time Machines - 3 views

spectrum.ieee.org/...s-could-act-like-time-machines

PHY technology blockchain INF

shared by jaihobah on 24 Apr 18 - No Cached
Dario Izzo liked it
  • jaihobah on 24 Apr 18
     
    Blockchains, now with more buzzwords!
  • Dario Izzo on 24 Apr 18
     
    Time travel! Finally. Can we also use it for antigravity?
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