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Why Computers Can't Mimic The Brain - Forbes.com - 3 views

www.forbes.com/...ology-breakthroughs-brain.html BIO brain
shared by Joris _ on 06 Dec 09 - No Cached
  • engineers seem to have a diminished ability to understand biology
  • Remember them the next time you read a story claiming some brain-like accomplishment of a computer. The only really human thing these programs are doing is attracting attention to themselves
9More

Pi Computation Record - 4 views

bellard.org/pi2700e9 inf
shared by Francesco Biscani on 06 Jan 10 - Cached
  • Francesco Biscani on 06 Jan 10
     
    For Dario: the PI computation record was established on a single desktop computer using a cache optimized algorithm. Previous record was obtained by a cluster of hundreds of computers. The cache optimized algorithm was 20 times faster.
  • ...6 more comments...
  • Ma Ru on 06 Jan 10
     
    Teeeeheeeeheeee... assembler programmers greet Java/Python/Etc. programmers :)
  • Dario Izzo on 07 Jan 10
     
    And he seems to have done everything in his free time!!! I like the first FAQ.... "why did you do it?"
  • nikolas smyrlakis on 07 Jan 10
  • LeopoldS on 07 Jan 10
     
    did you read any of the books he recommends? suggest: Modern Computer Arithmetic by Richard Brent and Paul Zimmermann, version 0.4, November 2009, Full text available here. The Art of Computer Programming, volume 2 : Seminumerical Algorithms by Donald E. Knuth, Addison-Wesley, third edition, 1998. More information here.
  • LeopoldS on 07 Jan 10
     
    btw: we will very soon have the very same processor in the new iMac .... what record are you going to beat with it?
  • Francesco Biscani on 08 Jan 10
     
    Zimmerman is the same guy behind the MPFR multiprecision floating-point library, if I recall correctly: http://www.mpfr.org/credit.html I've not read the book... Multiprecision arithmetic is a huge topic though, at least from the scientific and number theory point of view if not for its applications to engineering problems. "The art of computer programming" is probably the closest thing to a bible for computer scientists :)
  • Francesco Biscani on 08 Jan 10
     
    "btw: we will very soon have the very same processor in the new iMac .... what record are you going to beat with it?" Fastest Linux install on an iMac :)
  • Juxi Leitner on 08 Jan 10
     
    "Fastest Linux install on an iMac :)" that is going to be a though one but a worthy aim! ""The art of computer programming" is probably the closest thing to a bible for computer scientists :)" yep! Programming is art ;)
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Rules for Biologically Inspired Adaptive Network Design -- Tero et al. 327 (5964): 439 ... - 4 views

www.sciencemag.org/...439 BIO AI robot navigation paper
shared by Tobias Seidl on 22 Jan 10 - Cached
  • Tobias Seidl on 22 Jan 10
     
    Navigation for robtos. That's how we should have done the hybrid controller study.
  • ...3 more comments...
  • LeopoldS on 23 Jan 10
     
    and why didnt we?
  • Tobias Seidl on 25 Jan 10
     
    Because I have no clue about fungi. They are no animals. (Neither they are plants, of which I also don't have a clue.)
  • LeopoldS on 25 Jan 10
     
    so what are they then? ... and don't tell me "fungi" now ..
  • Tobias Seidl on 25 Jan 10
     
    Well, it has always been a long discussion. Fungi are according to the most recent findings definitely no plants. Since they have always been in botanic textbooks, I would assume that they were never considered animals.No fauna, no flora, no stones. Maybe they are extraterrestrials. But that wouldn't solve the questions. Maybe they are just "fungi"?
  • LeopoldS on 25 Jan 10
     
    what about then: "can we use them for space?"
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Brain Chips: Artificial Intelligence Is All in Your Head - GigaOM - 1 views

gigaom.com/...artificial-intelligence brain machine interface technology
shared by Juxi Leitner on 22 Jan 10 - Cached
  • Luzi Bergamin on 22 Jan 10
     
    Why isn't our good old Raymond Kurzweil mentioned? Some of the nonsense written in that page is one-to-one copy/paste from the Signularity bible...
  • LeopoldS on 23 Jan 10
     
    luzi how I miss you!!!!
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STLport: An Interview with A. Stepanov - 2 views

www.stlport.org/...StepanovUSA.html computer science
shared by Francesco Biscani on 23 Mar 10 - Cached
  • Generic programming is a programming method that is based in finding the most abstract representations of efficient algorithms.
  • I spent several months programming in Java.
  • for the first time in my life programming in a new language did not bring me new insights
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • it has no intellectual value whatsoever
  • Java is clearly an example of a money oriented programming (MOP).
  • Francesco Biscani on 23 Mar 10
     
    One of the authors of the STL (C++'s Standard Template Library) explains generic programming and slams Java.
  • ...6 more comments...
  • Ma Ru on 24 Mar 10
     
    "Java is clearly an example of a money oriented programming (MOP)." Exactly. And for the industry it's the money that matters. Whatever mathematicians think about it.
  • Joris _ on 24 Mar 10
     
    It is actually a good thing that it is "MOP" (even though I do not agree with this term): that is what makes it inter-operable, light and easy to learn. There is no point in writing fancy codes, if it does not bring anything to the end-user, but only for geeks to discuss incomprehensible things in forums. Anyway, I am pretty sure we can find a Java guy slamming C++ ;)
  • Francesco Biscani on 24 Mar 10
     
    Personally, I never understood what the point of Java is, given that: 1) I do not know of any developer (maybe Marek?) that uses it for intellectual pleasure/curiosity/fun whatever, given the possibility of choice - this to me speaks loudly on the objective qualities of the language more than any industrial-corporate marketing bullshit (for the record, I argue that Python is more interoperable, lighter and easier to learn than Java - which is why, e.g., Google is using it heavily); 2) I have used a software developed in Java maybe a total of 5 times on any computer/laptop I owned over 15 years. I cannot name of one single Java project that I find necessary or even useful; for my usage of computers, Java could disappear overnight without even noticing. Then of course one can argue as much as one wants about the "industry choosing Java", to which I would counterargue with examples of industry doing stupid things and making absurd choices. But I suppose it would be a kind of pointless discussion, so I'll just stop here :)
  • Joris _ on 24 Mar 10
     
    "At Google, python is one of the 3 "official languages" alongside with C++ and Java". Java runs everywhere (the byte code itself) that is I think the only reason it became famous. Python, I guess, is more heavy if it were to run on your web browser! I think every language has its pros and cons, but I agree Java is not the answer to everything... Java is used in MATLAB, some web applications, mobile phones apps, ... I would be a bit in trouble if it were to disappear today :(
  • Dario Izzo on 24 Mar 10
     
    I personally do not believe in interoperability :)
  • Ma Ru on 24 Mar 10
     
    Well, I bet you'd notice an overnight disappearance of java, because half of the internet would vanish... J2EE technologies are just omnipresent there... I'd rather not even *think* about developing a web application/webservice/web-whatever in standard C++... is it actually possible?? Perhaps with some weird Microsoft solutions... I bet your bank online services are written in Java. Certainly not in PHP+MySQL :) Industry has chosen Java not because of industrial-corporate marketing bullshit, but because of economics... it enables you develop robustly, reliably, error-prone, modular, well integrated etc... software. And the costs? Well, using java technologies you can set-up enterprise-quality web application servers, get a fully featured development environment (which is better than ANY C/C++/whatever development environment I've EVER seen) at the cost of exactly 0 (zero!) USD/GBP/EUR... Since many years now, the central issue in software development is not implementing algorithms, it's building applications. And that's where Java outperforms many other technologies. The final remark, because I may be mistakenly taken for an apostle of Java or something... I love the idea of generic programming, C++ is my favourite programming language (and I used to read Stroustroup before sleep), at leisure time I write programs in Python... But if I were to start a software development company, then, apart from some very niche applications like computer games, it most probably would use Java as main technology.
  • Francesco Biscani on 24 Mar 10
     
    "I'd rather not even *think* about developing a web application/webservice/web-whatever in standard C++... is it actually possible?? Perhaps with some weird Microsoft solutions... I bet your bank online services are written in Java. Certainly not in PHP+MySQL :)" Doing in C++ would be awesomely crazy, I agree :) But as I see it there are lots of huge websites that operate on PHP, see for instance Facebook. For the banks and the enterprise market, as a general rule I tend to take with a grain of salt whatever spin comes out from them; in the end behind every corporate IT decision there is a little smurf just trying to survive and have the back covered :) As they used to say in the old times, "No one ever got fired for buying IBM". "Industry has chosen Java not because of industrial-corporate marketing bullshit, but because of economics... it enables you develop robustly, reliably, error-prone, modular, well integrated etc... software. And the costs? Well, using java technologies you can set-up enterprise-quality web application servers, get a fully featured development environment (which is better than ANY C/C++/whatever development environment I've EVER seen) at the cost of exactly 0 (zero!) USD/GBP/EUR... Since many years now, the central issue in software development is not implementing algorithms, it's building applications. And that's where Java outperforms many other technologies." Apart from the IDE considerations (on which I cannot comment, since I'm not a IDE user myself), I do not see how Java beats the competition in this regard (again, Python and the huge software ecosystem surrounding it). My impression is that Java's success is mostly due to Sun pushing it like there is no tomorrow and bundling it with their hardware business.
  • Joris _ on 24 Mar 10
     
    OK, I think there is a bit of everything, wrong and right, but you have to acknowledge that Python is not always the simplest. For info, Facebook uses Java (if you upload picture for instance), and PHP is very limited. So definitely, in company, engineers like you and me select the language, it is not a marketing or political thing. And in the case of fb, they come up with the conclusion that PHP, and Java don't do everything but complement each other. As you say Python as many things around, but it might be too much for simple applications. Otherwise, I would seriously be interested by a study of how to implement a Python-like system on-board spacecrafts and what are the advantages over mixing C, Ada and Java.
2More

Why Humans Have Sex | The New York Academy of Sciences - 4 views

www.nyas.org/...PodcastDetail.aspx behaviour psychology
shared by LeopoldS on 04 May 10 - Cached
  • LeopoldS on 04 May 10
     
    nice podcast ... ESTEC YGT community might be an interesting study pool ....
  • Juxi Leitner on 06 May 10
     
    haha ;) I dunno what the general idea of the YGTs here at ESTEC is ;)
3More

Good-Bye Alta-Vista, Delicious | ZDNet - 2 views

www.zdnet.com/...454
shared by nikolas smyrlakis on 17 Dec 10 - No Cached
LeopoldS liked it
  • nikolas smyrlakis on 17 Dec 10
     
    we were 1,5 year ahead to switch to diigo !
  • Ma Ru on 18 Dec 10
     
    Man, I remember, long long time ago, altavista was my first contact with the internet ever.
  • LeopoldS on 19 Dec 10
     
    indeed ... and it was largely thanks to you ... remember well the discussion in the group meeting with the arguments brought forward: why change, it works ...
3More

Sun For Everyun - 3 views

www.esa.int/...SEMYTMRRJHG_index_0.html technology space Sun ESA open science SOHO software
shared by Ma Ru on 17 Dec 10 - No Cached
pacome delva liked it
  • Ma Ru on 17 Dec 10
     
    Nice initiative, isn't it?
  • LeopoldS on 19 Dec 10
     
    some citizen science added to this would make it even better ... as it is it's rather, boh ...
  • Ma Ru on 19 Dec 10
     
    Well, true - making data public is one thing, and making others to work through them for you is another... I love the new term "citizen science" though (and an explanation on the Wikipedia page why they had to invent a new one because "crowdsourcing" is soooooo - politically - wrong).
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Google defends H.264 removal from Chrome, says WebM plug-ins coming to Safari and IE9 -... - 1 views

m.engadget.com/...article.do open source free sofware
shared by Dario Izzo on 16 Jan 11 - No Cached
  • Dario Izzo on 16 Jan 11
     
    Free software or a marketing move?
  • Francesco Biscani on 16 Jan 11
     
    They have all the weight they need to pull this through. I'm dreaming of a day in which they will switch all Youtube videos to WebM, with all the Apple devices becoming useless to watch Internet video :) And Steve Jobs struggling to explain why, after wearing the mantle of open standards in the whole Flash vs HTML5 thing, he's now pushing H.264 against WebM... Anyway, in my view the less encumbered formats around the best for everyone's freedom.
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Alliant, EADS Unit Set Sights on Rocket Venture - 0 views

online.wsj.com/...4422204576130482887509152.html space NASA human
shared by Joris _ on 08 Feb 11 - No Cached
  • Joris _ on 08 Feb 11
     
    ... some competition in the commercial space launcher market ? I kind of wonder why EU, or ESA, still doesn't push for anything in this market!
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Prof. Markrams Hirnmaschine (Startseite, NZZ Online) - 2 views

www.nzz.ch/...s_hirnmaschine_1.10736223.html AI neuroscience SciFi
shared by Luzi Bergamin on 29 May 11 - No Cached
  • Luzi Bergamin on 29 May 11
     
    A critical view on Prof. Markram's Blue Brain project (in German).
  • ...4 more comments...
  • Luzi Bergamin on 29 May 11
     
    A critical view on Prof. Markram's Blue Brain project (in German).
  • LeopoldS on 30 May 11
     
    so critical that the comment needed to be posted twice :-) ?
  • Luzi Bergamin on 30 May 11
     
    Yes, I know; I still don't know how to deal with this f.... Diigo Toolbar! Shame on me!!!
  • dejanpetkow on 30 May 11
     
    Would be nice to read something about the modelling, but it appears that there is nothing published in detail. Following the article, the main approach is to model each(!) neuron taking into account the spatial structure of the neurons positions. Once achieved they expect intelligent behaviour. And they need a (type of) supercomputer which does not exist yet.
  • Ma Ru on 31 May 11
     
    As far as I know it's sort of like "Let's construct an enormous dynamical system and see what happens"... i.e. a waste of taxpayer's money... Able to heal Alzheimer... Yeah... Actually I was on the conference the author is mentioning (FET 2011) and I have seen the presentations of all 6 flagship proposals. Following that I had a discussion with one of my colleagues about the existence of limits of the amount of bullshit politicians are willing to buy from scientists. Will there be a point at which politicians, despite their total ignorance, will realise that scientists simply don't deliver anything they promise? How long will we (scientists) be stuck in the viscous circle of have-to-promise-more-than-predecessors in order to get money? Will we face a situation when we'll be forced to revert to promises which are realistic? To be honest none of the 6 presentations convinced me of their scientific merit (apart from the one on graphene where I have absolutely no expertise to tell). Apparently a huge amount of money is about to be wasted.
  • Luzi Bergamin on 01 Jun 11
     
    It's not just "Let's construct an enormous dynamical system and see what happens", it's worse! Also the simulation of the cosmological evolution is/was a little bit of this type, still the results are very interesting and useful. Why? Neither the whole cosmos nor the human brain at the level of single neurons can be modelled on a computer, that would last aeons on a "yet-to-be-invented-extra-super-computer". Thus one has to make assumptions and simplifications. In cosmology we have working theories of gravitation, thermodynamics, electrodynamics etc. at hand; starting from these theories we can make reasonable assumptions and (more or less) justified simplifications. The result is valuable since it provides insight into a complex system under given, explicit and understood assumptions. Nothing similar seems to exist in neuroscience. There is no theory of the human brain and apparently nobody has the slightest idea which simplifications can be made without harm. Of course, Mr. Markram remains completely unaffected of ''details'' like this. Finally, Marek, money is not wasted, we ''build networks of excellence'' and ''select the brightest of the brightest'' to make them study and work at our ''elite institutions'' :-). I lively remember the stage of one of these "bestofthebest" from Ivy League at the ACT...
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Even Robots Can Be Heroes - ScienceNOW - 5 views

news.sciencemag.org/...even-robots-can-be-heroes.html robots AI
shared by santecarloni on 05 May 11 - No Cached
LeopoldS liked it
  • santecarloni on 05 May 11
     
    "Computer simulations of tiny robots with rudimentary nervous systems show that, over hundreds of generations, these virtual machines evolve altruistic behaviors"
  • Luís F. Simões on 06 May 11
     
    I have lost track of all the artificial life/evolutionary computing studies showing the evolution of cooperation/altruism. I don't understand why all the big fuss about this latest one.
4More

Tree identification a snap with mobile app - Technology & Science - CBC News - 1 views

www.cbc.ca/...logy-leaf-app-smithsonian.html
shared by LeopoldS on 13 Jun 11 - No Cached
  • LeopoldS on 13 Jun 11
     
    One more nice citizen scientist example as I try to find for space since some time. Any good ideas this mit inspire you to?
  • ...1 more comment...
  • Ma Ru on 13 Jun 11
     
    IF THERE IS A MUSHROOM IDENTIFICATION APP I BUY AN IPHONE IMMEDIATELY!!!
  • LeopoldS on 13 Jun 11
     
    why don't you programme one and get rich?
  • Ma Ru on 13 Jun 11
     
    Would love to but this requires *TIME* :-( Automatic image-based mushroom recognition... perhaps could do as a FP7 study... it may save lives actually!
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[1108.4767] Capturing Near Earth Objects - 3 views

arxiv.org/1108.4767 asteroids space science
shared by santecarloni on 30 Aug 11 - No Cached
  • santecarloni on 30 Aug 11
     
    I sit really possible/desirable?
  • Joris _ on 30 Aug 11
     
    It is possible, and NEOs may offer interesting ressources, but there is nothing in that paper. Why do they use the Sun-Earth system and not the Earth-Moon? The condition C>C1 is very weak and would have been much better had it been applied to the Earth-Moon system.
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Strong plasmonic enhancement of photovoltage in graphene : Nature Communications : Natu... - 0 views

www.nature.com/...ncomms1464.html PHY NRG technology
shared by LeopoldS on 11 Sep 11 - No Cached
  • LeopoldS on 11 Sep 11
     
    graphene for solar cells ... who wants to have a closer look at it?
  • Lionel Jacques on 12 Sep 11
     
    Why not but I'm not sure I have the competences/background to do much...
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