Best content in Advanced Concepts Team

"God Machine" Critics to U.N.: Experiment an Affront to Human Rights - 3 views

blogs.sciencemag.org/...critics-of-god.html

fun phy lhc particles

shared by pacome delva on 09 Nov 09 - Cached

pacome delva on 09 Nov 09

The end of the world is for this month...

<div class="cArrow"> </div><div class="cContentInner">The end of the world is for this month...</div>

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BBC NEWS | Technology | 'Road trains' get ready to roll - 3 views

news.bbc.co.uk/...8349923.stm

diigo technology bbc news

shared by nikolas smyrlakis on 09 Nov 09 - Cached

nikolas smyrlakis on 09 Nov 09

sleeping and driving on the highway

<div class="cArrow"> </div><div class="cContentInner">sleeping and driving on the highway</div>

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LeopoldS on 09 Nov 09

"The lead vehicle would be handled by a professional driver who would monitor the status of the road train. Those in following vehicles could take their hands off the wheel, read a book or watch TV, while they travel along the motorway. Their vehicle would be controlled by the lead vehicle." .... what or who is defining a professional driver? one of the always overly tired truck drivers?

<div class="cArrow"> </div><div class="cContentInner">"The lead vehicle would be handled by a professional driver who would monitor the status of the road train. Those in following vehicles could take their hands off the wheel, read a book or watch TV, while they travel along the motorway. Their vehicle would be controlled by the lead vehicle." .... what or who is defining a professional driver? one of the always overly tired truck drivers?</div>

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The Go Programming Language - 3 views

golang.org

INF programming language

shared by LeopoldS on 12 Nov 09 - Cached

LeopoldS on 12 Nov 09

new programming language - hybrid between c and python .... from google .... of any interest for us?

<div class="cArrow"> </div><div class="cContentInner">new programming language - hybrid between c and python .... from google .... of any interest for us?</div>

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Francesco Biscani on 12 Nov 09

See the other post for my comments....

<div class="cArrow"> </div><div class="cContentInner">See the other post for my comments....</div>

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LeopoldS on 12 Nov 09

sorry - did not see Juxi's entry ....

<div class="cArrow"> </div><div class="cContentInner">sorry - did not see Juxi's entry ....</div>

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The Art of Community - 3 views

www.artofcommunityonline.org

open source open management

shared by Francesco Biscani on 15 Nov 09 - Cached

Francesco Biscani on 15 Nov 09

A recently-published book by the Ubuntu Community Manager, Jono Bacon. I just started reading it: lots of information, experiences and revealing hints on how open-source communities are born and evolve today.

<div class="cArrow"> </div><div class="cContentInner">A recently-published book by the Ubuntu Community Manager, Jono Bacon. I just started reading it: lots of information, experiences and revealing hints on how open-source communities are born and evolve today.</div>

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jmlloren on 15 Nov 09

"Since I released The Art of Community, one thing has become evident: the people who are buying it are awesome. If you have bought it you are awesome. If you have not, you too can be awesome." To me seems more interesting the topic than the author. I have the impression that many people in this community behave like high-school pupils, though their production it's absolutely "awesome".

<div class="cArrow"> </div><div class="cContentInner">"Since I released The Art of Community, one thing has become evident: the people who are buying it are awesome. If you have bought it you are awesome. If you have not, you too can be awesome." To me seems more interesting the topic than the author. I have the impression that many people in this community behave like high-school pupils, though their production it's absolutely "awesome".</div>

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Francesco Biscani on 15 Nov 09

Awesome!

<div class="cArrow"> </div><div class="cContentInner">Awesome!</div>

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New LHC Sabotage Theory - 3 views

us.cnn.com/video

NRG CERN LHC

shared by Ma Ru on 15 Nov 09 - Cached

Ma Ru on 15 Nov 09

I find it much more plausible than the theory of a bird bombing it with a baguette...

<div class="cArrow"> </div><div class="cContentInner">I find it much more plausible than the theory of a bird bombing it with a baguette...</div>

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Francesco Biscani on 15 Nov 09

The obligatory xkcd: http://xkcd.com/401/

<div class="cArrow"> </div><div class="cContentInner">The obligatory xkcd: <a href="http://xkcd.com/401/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://xkcd.com/401/</a></div>

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Expedition Week | Mars: Making the New Earth | National Geographic Channel - 3 views

channel.nationalgeographic.com/...Overview

terraforming Mars

shared by Nina Nadine Ridder on 16 Nov 09 - Cached

Nina Nadine Ridder on 16 Nov 09

announcement of broadcast of documentation about Terraforming Mars on the 19th of November (with nice videos)

<div class="cArrow"> </div><div class="cContentInner">announcement of broadcast of documentation about Terraforming Mars on the 19th of November (with nice videos)</div>

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Ma Ru on 16 Nov 09

Please give the title of at least one Sci-fi novel in which terraforming was mentioned ;)

<div class="cArrow"> </div><div class="cContentInner">Please give the title of at least one Sci-fi novel in which terraforming was mentioned ;)</div>

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Optics InfoBase - Photorealistic images of carpet cloaks - 3 views

www.opticsinfobase.org/abstract.cfm

metamaterials optics NAN nanoengineering

shared by LeopoldS on 17 Nov 09 - Cached

LeopoldS on 17 Nov 09

nice paper ... José and Luzi you will like it ...

<div class="cArrow"> </div><div class="cContentInner">nice paper ... José and Luzi you will like it ...</div>

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Secret Math of Fly Eyes Could Overhaul Robot Vision | Wired Science | Wired.com - 1 views

www.wired.com/...fly-eyes

bio technology science vision

shared by Juxi Leitner on 17 Nov 09 - Cached

LeopoldS liked it

Physics - Power laws in chess - 3 views

physics.aps.org/...97

statistics chess

shared by pacome delva on 18 Nov 09 - Cached

Finding power laws has now become de rigueur when analyzing popularity distributions. Long tails have been reported for the frequency of word usage in many languages [2], the number of citations of scientific papers [3], the number of visits (hits) to individual websites in a given time interval [4], and many more.
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pacome delva on 18 Nov 09

Is there such a law for the technology used in satellites ?

<div class="cArrow"> </div><div class="cContentInner">Is there such a law for the technology used in satellites ?</div>

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Forschung in der Paläontologie - 3 views

www.palaeontologische-gesellschaft.de/...forschung.html

diigo

shared by LeopoldS on 19 Nov 09 - Cached

LeopoldS on 19 Nov 09

sorry for the german ... but underlines the unfortunately failed idea storm proposal I made :-)

<div class="cArrow"> </div><div class="cContentInner">sorry for the german ... but underlines the unfortunately failed idea storm proposal I made :-)</div>

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TEDxAmsterdam /today - 3 views

www.tedxamsterdam.nl/today

_today tedxamsterdam live stream

shared by nikolas smyrlakis on 20 Nov 09 - Cached

nikolas smyrlakis on 20 Nov 09

watch the live streaming of TEDxAmsterdam

<div class="cArrow"> </div><div class="cContentInner">watch the live streaming of TEDxAmsterdam</div>

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Alertme energy - 3 views

www.alertme.com/...alertme-energy

energy technology smart-grid commercial NRG

shared by Nicholas Lan on 24 Nov 09 - Cached

Nicholas Lan on 24 Nov 09

energy consumption meter that integrates with google powermeter. bottom-up smart grid?

<div class="cArrow"> </div><div class="cContentInner">energy consumption meter that integrates with google powermeter. bottom-up smart grid?</div>

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biomimetic wind turbines - 3 views

physicsworld.com/...40993

BIO NRG technology biomimetics terrestrial renewables

shared by Nicholas Lan on 25 Nov 09 - Cached

Nicholas Lan on 25 Nov 09

schools of fish => schools of wind turbines

<div class="cArrow"> </div><div class="cContentInner">schools of fish => schools of wind turbines</div>

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Cambridge University Engineering Department - Qi Pan - 3 views

mi.eng.cam.ac.uk/...BMVC09

INF 3D camera optics

shared by LeopoldS on 25 Nov 09 - Cached

LeopoldS on 25 Nov 09

nice tool ... but apparently not open source :-(

<div class="cArrow"> </div><div class="cContentInner">nice tool ... but apparently not open source :-(</div>

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Nicholas Lan on 25 Nov 09

already posted further down the page

<div class="cArrow"> </div><div class="cContentInner">already posted further down the page</div>

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Primal Fusion - 3 views

www.primalfusion.com/think

INF creativity brainstorming gadget

shared by LeopoldS on 29 Nov 09 - No Cached

LeopoldS on 29 Nov 09

just discovered this thought cloud alpha stage website .... I am sure that Kevin would LOVE this one ...

<div class="cArrow"> </div><div class="cContentInner">just discovered this thought cloud alpha stage website .... I am sure that Kevin would LOVE this one ...</div>

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Artificial meat grown in laboratory - UPI.com - 3 views

www.upi.com/...UPI-45551259518119

artificial meat bioengineering

shared by nikolas smyrlakis on 30 Nov 09 - Cached

nikolas smyrlakis on 30 Nov 09

bioengineers did it in the Netherlands - hope sodexho doesn't find out soon !!

<div class="cArrow"> </div><div class="cContentInner">bioengineers did it in the Netherlands - hope sodexho doesn't find out soon !!</div>

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...1 more comment...
Ma Ru on 30 Nov 09

geee... I want to see how they "exercise" it :)

<div class="cArrow"> </div><div class="cContentInner">geee... I want to see how they "exercise" it :)</div>

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nikolas smyrlakis on 30 Nov 09

"If it feels and tastes like meat, people will buy it.", sounds like the normal dutch mentality on food. it feels and tastes smth like it

<div class="cArrow"> </div><div class="cContentInner">"If it feels and tastes like meat, people will buy it.", sounds like the normal dutch mentality on food. it feels and tastes smth like it</div>

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pacome delva on 30 Nov 09

aaah! completely crazy these dutch. What's wrong with killing cows and pigs...

<div class="cArrow"> </div><div class="cContentInner">aaah! completely crazy these dutch. What's wrong with killing cows and pigs...</div>

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David Copperfield's Flying Illusion Revealed or how to protect your invention? | Presans - 3 views

www.presans.com/...-or-how-protect-your-invention

patents internet innovation

shared by LeopoldS on 03 Dec 09 - Cached

LeopoldS on 03 Dec 09

nice article reflecting on how to best "protect" ideas ....

<div class="cArrow"> </div><div class="cContentInner">nice article reflecting on how to best "protect" ideas ....</div>

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Ma Ru on 04 Dec 09

"we should not forget that the technical solution disclosed in this article is only 5% of illusion" Certainly... but I wonder how did they measure it?

<div class="cArrow"> </div><div class="cContentInner">"we should not forget that the technical solution disclosed in this article is only 5% of illusion" Certainly... but I wonder how did they measure it?</div>

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Francesco Biscani on 04 Dec 09

Obviously, they subtracted the percentage amount of bullshit from the total :P

<div class="cArrow"> </div><div class="cContentInner">Obviously, they subtracted the percentage amount of bullshit from the total :P</div>

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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
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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
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Probabilistic Logic Allows Computer Chip to Run Faster - 3 views

www.azonano.com/news.asp

INF MAD probabilistic computing AI

shared by Dario Izzo on 07 Dec 09 - Cached

Dario Izzo on 07 Dec 09

Francesco pointed out this research one year ago, we dropped it as noone was really considering it ... but in space a low CPU power consumption is crucial!! Maybe we should look back into this?

<div class="cArrow"> </div><div class="cContentInner">Francesco pointed out this research one year ago, we dropped it as noone was really considering it ... but in space a low CPU power consumption is crucial!! Maybe we should look back into this?</div>

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...6 more comments...
Ma Ru on 07 Dec 09

Q1: For the time being, for what purposes computers are mainly used on-board?

<div class="cArrow"> </div><div class="cContentInner">Q1: For the time being, for what purposes computers are mainly used on-board?</div>

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Dario Izzo on 07 Dec 09

for navigation, control, data handling and so on .... why?

<div class="cArrow"> </div><div class="cContentInner">for navigation, control, data handling and so on .... why?</div>

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Ma Ru on 07 Dec 09

Well, because the point is to identify an application in which such computers would do the job... That could be either an existing application which can be done sufficiently well by such computers or a completely new application which is not already there for instance because of some power consumption constraints... Q2 would be then: for which of these purposes strict determinism of the results is not crucial? As the answer to this may not be obvious, a potential study could address this very issue. For instance one can consider on-board navigation systems with limited accuracy... I may be talking bullshit now, but perhaps in some applications it doesn't matter whether a satellite flies on the exact route but +/-10km to the left/right? ...and so on for the other systems. Another thing is understanding what exactly this probabilistic computing is, and what can be achieved using it (like the result is probabilistic but falls within a defined range of precision), etc. Did they build a complete chip or at least a sub-circiut, or still only logic gates...

<div class="cArrow"> </div><div class="cContentInner">Well, because the point is to identify an application in which such computers would do the job... That could be either an existing application which can be done sufficiently well by such computers or a completely new application which is not already there for instance because of some power consumption constraints... Q2 would be then: for which of these purposes strict determinism of the results is not crucial? As the answer to this may not be obvious, a potential study could address this very issue. For instance one can consider on-board navigation systems with limited accuracy... I may be talking bullshit now, but perhaps in some applications it doesn't matter whether a satellite flies on the exact route but +/-10km to the left/right? ...and so on for the other systems. Another thing is understanding what exactly this probabilistic computing is, and what can be achieved using it (like the result is probabilistic but falls within a defined range of precision), etc. Did they build a complete chip or at least a sub-circiut, or still only logic gates...</div>

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Dario Izzo on 07 Dec 09

Satellites use old CPUs also because with the trend of going for higher power modern CPUs are not very convenient from a system design point of view (TBC)... as a consequence the constraints put on on-board algorithms can be demanding. I agree with you that double precision might just not be necessary for a number of applications (navigation also), but I guess we are not talking about 10km as an absolute value, rather to a relative error that can be tolerated at level of (say) 10^-6. All in all you are right a first study should assess what application this would be useful at all.. and at what precision / power levels

<div class="cArrow"> </div><div class="cContentInner">Satellites use old CPUs also because with the trend of going for higher power modern CPUs are not very convenient from a system design point of view (TBC)... as a consequence the constraints put on on-board algorithms can be demanding. I agree with you that double precision might just not be necessary for a number of applications (navigation also), but I guess we are not talking about 10km as an absolute value, rather to a relative error that can be tolerated at level of (say) 10^-6. All in all you are right a first study should assess what application this would be useful at all.. and at what precision / power levels</div>

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Joris _ on 07 Dec 09

The interest of this can be a high fault tolerance for some math operations, ... which would have for effect to simplify the job of coders! I don't think this is a good idea regarding power consumption for CPU (strictly speaking). The reason we use old chip is just a matter of qualification for space, not power. For instance a LEON Sparc (e.g. use on some platform for ESA) consumes something like 5mW/MHz so it is definitely not were an engineer will look for some power saving considering a usual 10-15kW spacecraft

<div class="cArrow"> </div><div class="cContentInner">The interest of this can be a high fault tolerance for some math operations, ... which would have for effect to simplify the job of coders! I don't think this is a good idea regarding power consumption for CPU (strictly speaking). The reason we use old chip is just a matter of qualification for space, not power. For instance a LEON Sparc (e.g. use on some platform for ESA) consumes something like 5mW/MHz so it is definitely not were an engineer will look for some power saving considering a usual 10-15kW spacecraft</div>

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Dario Izzo on 07 Dec 09

What about speed then? Seven time faster could allow some real time navigation at higher speed (e.g. velocity of a terminal guidance for an asteroid impactor is limited to 10 km/s ... would a higher velocity be possible with faster processors?) Another issue is the radiation tolerance of the technology ... if the PCMOS are more tolerant to radiation they could get more easily space qualified.....

<div class="cArrow"> </div><div class="cContentInner">What about speed then? Seven time faster could allow some real time navigation at higher speed (e.g. velocity of a terminal guidance for an asteroid impactor is limited to 10 km/s ... would a higher velocity be possible with faster processors?) Another issue is the radiation tolerance of the technology ... if the PCMOS are more tolerant to radiation they could get more easily space qualified.....</div>

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Joris _ on 08 Dec 09

I don't remember what is the speed factor, but I guess this might do it! Although, I remember when using an IMU that you cannot have the data above a given rate (e.g. 20Hz even though the ADC samples the sensor at a little faster rate), so somehow it is not just the CPU that must be re-thought. When I say qualification I also imply the "hardened" phase.

<div class="cArrow"> </div><div class="cContentInner">I don't remember what is the speed factor, but I guess this might do it! Although, I remember when using an IMU that you cannot have the data above a given rate (e.g. 20Hz even though the ADC samples the sensor at a little faster rate), so somehow it is not just the CPU that must be re-thought. When I say qualification I also imply the "hardened" phase.</div>

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Francesco Biscani on 08 Dec 09

I don't know if the (promised) one-order-of-magnitude improvements in power efficiency and performance are enough to justify looking into this. For once, it is not clear to me what embracing this technology would mean from an engineering point of view: does this technology need an entirely new software/hardware stack? If that were the case, in my opinion any potential benefit would be nullified. Also, is it realistic to build an entire self-sufficient chip on this technology? While the precision of floating point computations may be degraded and still be useful, how does all this play with integer arithmetic? Keep in mind that, e.g., in the Linux kernel code floating-point calculations are not even allowed/available... It is probably possible to integrate an "accelerated" low-accuracy floating-point unit together with a traditional CPU, but then again you have more implementation overhead creeping in. Finally, recent processors by Intel (e.g., the Atom) and especially ARM boast really low power-consumption levels, at the same time offering performance-boosting features such as multi-core and vectorization capabilities. Don't such efforts have more potential, if anything because of economical/industrial inertia?

<div class="cArrow"> </div><div class="cContentInner">I don't know if the (promised) one-order-of-magnitude improvements in power efficiency and performance are enough to justify looking into this. For once, it is not clear to me what embracing this technology would mean from an engineering point of view: does this technology need an entirely new software/hardware stack? If that were the case, in my opinion any potential benefit would be nullified. Also, is it realistic to build an entire self-sufficient chip on this technology? While the precision of floating point computations may be degraded and still be useful, how does all this play with integer arithmetic? Keep in mind that, e.g., in the Linux kernel code floating-point calculations are not even allowed/available... It is probably possible to integrate an "accelerated" low-accuracy floating-point unit together with a traditional CPU, but then again you have more implementation overhead creeping in. Finally, recent processors by Intel (e.g., the Atom) and especially ARM boast really low power-consumption levels, at the same time offering performance-boosting features such as multi-core and vectorization capabilities. Don't such efforts have more potential, if anything because of economical/industrial inertia?</div>

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Computers in space - 3 views

www.dansdata.com/spacecomp.htm

INF probabilistic computing