With rising food costs, a trend I’ve been noticing in restaurants is smaller portions at the same prices (rather than, say, raising prices on existing portions). It could also be a push towards healthier meals through less food, I suppose.
Understands the math, understands the programming, understands the client. Pick any two.
Google is finally about to roll out a CBIR system using something similar to the “Vantage Objects” concept. It’s about time – I’ve wondered why no major search engines adopted this sort of thing for a long time.
I have nothing against people with Asperger’s syndrome or other autism-spectrum disorders – in fact, they tend to have some great ideas and are among the smartest people I’ve ever met (true savants are outright intimidating, even to me). However, the communication difficulties aren’t overhyped; they really are very difficult to talk to, even when I make a conscious effort to communicate in spite of the difficulty. It seems that they either focus incredibly intently on a single topic to the extent that everything else, including the person they are speaking to, is shut out, or they exhibit the complete opposite behavior, jumping from topic to topic so quickly that it’s difficult to retain coherence amidst the clutter (but is this actually Autism?). It seems to have an impact not only on their real-time verbal skills (i.e., those used in a conversation), but also on their writing skills in general.
I don’t think I quite understood the nature of the disorder until I began communicating with some individuals who possessed it.
And it would make an awesome poster 🙂
The vast area in the center of the circle would be solid, representing “common knowledge”. The area outside would be filled with variable-length linear spokes projecting outwards from the surface of the circle, representing current work in various scientific fields. A breadth-first approach to knowledge would then be represented by traversing the circle, while a depth-first approach would be represented by moving in the direction orthogonal to the circle’s tangent line.
“What do you get when you combine C# and F#?”
“A perfect Forth”.
Everything we can directly perceive with our sight is contained in a band of light about 400nm across. This band of light happens to coincide with the type of light achieving penetration through earth’s atmosphere, which, of course, is not a coincidence at all. Our sense of sight grew up around this band of light and it would be foolish to expect extraterrestrial sources of life, should they exist, to see the same band. This throws another wrench into sci-fi cliches 🙂
The same goes for any sense that depends on properties specific to Earth or the Sun. For that matter, they probably couldn’t breathe our air, either.
A board of polymaths is quite a powerful thing. I’m beginning to realize that, between just the four of us that are on the board right now, we probably have some degree of coverage of about 3/4 of all major disciplines. By the time we fill the board with the originally-planned 7-9 members, we’re going to essentially have a group that can do almost anything. I’ve never, in my entire life, seen a group with that breadth of ability before.
We still need a lawyer and an accountant, though.
When I interviewed with Google, I spoke with several people on the Maps team. I mentioned that they needed to address the privacy issues of street view before they were sued. I suggested facial recognition and suggested some possibilities, primarily Eigenfaces. They responded (correctly) that what they were doing was not technically illegal. I argued that it was still going to be perceived as a violation of privacy (this is the company with the motto “Don’t be evil”, after all).
They did not listen. And now they are being sued. It’s definitely only the first of many, too.
Following (and indeed, likely due in no small part because of) the trans fat crusade, the next “bad fat” will likely be the interesterified fat resulting from total hydrogenation. Total hydrogenation, unlike partial hydrogenation, produces no trans fats. However, the resulting fatty acid is saturated and, worse, seems to cause a sharp rise in blood sugar. Given that the so-called “metabolic syndrome” consists of hypertension, obesity, and diabetes, it stands to reason that, should these fats become popular, the cause of this syndrome will eventually be laid in no small part at the feet of the interesterification process.