Simorgh

From the myths of the Gods to the Sci-Fi of the modern age. Stories inspire and give life to technological advancement just as much as technological advancement gives rise to stories.

Hi! What are your thoughts as to the development of responsive or mobile-optimised visualisations?

I really feel Bostock et al. are creating art. I'm just learning D3 at the moment and I am consistently blown away by its elegance.

After graduating with an Economics degree, I was keen to create a start-up. Unfortunately, the rigidly logical approach I initially took wasn't helpful. Perhaps it was symptomatic of studying economics.

I began to 'think on my feet' more as I got good at networking and listening. As I began to suss out demand, I realised that I would always be hampered by my limited coding ability. I had a friend who was doing the coding for our team, and as he went for a PhD, he encouraged me to go for a MSc. So I did!

Long story short. I'm studying CompSci and got in largely because of the late-night coding I was doing on the side of my regular job.

Absolutely brilliant idea!! Anyone know the people doing this? Would love to have a convo with them...

I like the idea too.

However it is worth noting that Bell Labs' hey day was a while back [1].

YC's Request for Startups makes a reference to Bell Labs, 'Bell Labs worked a long time ago but would probably not work in today’s world'. I suppose the key word is 'probably'. No one knows what will happen tomorrow, but certainly Nokia and Bell Labs have their work cut out.

[1] http://www.wired.com/2014/09/coupland-bell-labs/

very interesting article!

It seems that machine learning could be used to stabilise a nuclear fusion reactor through a real-time control strategy, e.g. optimising the reactor's environment/conditions via micro-adjustments.

Has anyone any knowledge of machine learning being combined with nuclear fusion data? I ask because I may be pursuing this intersection.

(Anecdotes from HNers can be more insightful than research papers).

The Economist just recently published an article on geoengineering. If you read between the lines it's actually very scary stuff.

Some academics, notably Chomsky, openly talk about the extinction of our species as a plausible outcome of global warming. I asked him about geoengineering. He just said, 'it seems hazardous.'

http://www.economist.com/news/special-report/21678963-man-ma...

ITER (located in France) will build a fusion device to produce net energy, in the next few years - 50MW input and 500 MW output. The project has about €13 Billion investment committed.

Perhaps we're on the edge of a new energy area.

https://www.iter.org/proj/inafewlines

Sam Altman and Elon Musk ponder whether we're all living in a simulation, as an explanation to the Fermi Paradox. Very eerie...!

https://youtu.be/SqEo107j-uw?t=17m3s

Cartesianism is of the philosophy of Descartes (I just discovered).

Descartes was a fascinating individual. Something I recently read (but couldn't easily corroborate through the web) was that when he was a young man he had three dreams in one night. He interpreted the content of the dreams as a divine signal that he should pursue wisdom.

La Vie de M. Descartes - Adrein Baillet quoted in 'What Galileo Saw' by Lawrence Lipking

good luck to the team.

the mission website states that one of the aims is to measure gravitation waves. I would love to see the data. NASA open sources a lot of space data. Here's to hoping ESA does so too for this mission.

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/LISA_Pathfin...

I am quite curious about the OODA loop. I understand that the concept was pioneered by John Boyd and was actually borrowed by Steve Blank (who cited it in developing the 'customer development' approach to starting a start-up).

How central is the OODA loop to military methodologies?

I ask because in the biography of John Boyd it was portrayed as being somewhat ignored by the Air Force (but foundational to the Marines).

Sometimes the timing of unconnected events is curious on a cosmic scale.

Only a day or two ago New Shepherd reached a milestone. Today parts from a past SpaceX mission wash up onshore.

The proximity of these events show that space exploration is witnessing a lot of activity from agents who are operating independently.

As a musician, I would tentatively suggest that it is unbelievably difficult to build genuine connections with large numbers of fans.

Call it the data deluge or whatever, the sheer volume of attention seeking content out there just swamps timid voices.

Perhaps this is nothing new, however.

There is a nice book by Brett Lantz called Machine Learning. The first edition (which I have) built machine learners in R, I assume the new second edition does the same.

I agree with your assertion that R is slow, yet quick to develop in.

I recently had to loop through 1.3Gb of data (5000 files) and merge just one column from each file into a new dataset. It did so in ~2 hours. Yet the loop was just ~5 lines of code.

Book Recommendation: There's an absolutely stellar book on Galileo, Copernicus, Newton, Descartes and several other brilliant people written in a very readable fashion. It's called 'What Galileo Saw' and it's by Lawrence Lipking. Perhaps my favourite book.

As someone fascinated with web design, typography, UI and the like, it may be worthwhile to point out that design can markedly enhance the rate at which salient information is digested, the real bitrate, if you like.

The website of an individual, a company, or even a framework like django rely on more than the digestion of facts, the factual-bitrate if you like. Perhaps not entirely scientific, but things like 'aura', 'emotion', 'atmosphere' and 'feel' can stimulate in a way in which a generic layout cannot. Design creates memorable impressions and literally colours our intuition and usage, allowing us to emote with others.

Although I acknowledge that the brain is not well understood, it seems plausible that some minds rely more on design (used in a very loose way here) than on a more scientific analytical mindset to interpret content and what is going on.

Note I did not use the word rational to refer to the latter mindset.

That's because humans are not particular rational. Trying to systematise the internet and remove all 'colour' would take away the beauty and the poetry of what the internet allows us to do.

I assume a benefit is that, using icebergs.io, you could run/access linux on a lower spec machine?

So for instance I've heard it would be difficult to install linux on a macbook 2015, but using icebergs through your browser you could do so. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Why do you think that 'the establishment' is so hard to innovate within?