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hongzi

1,335 karma · joined April 13, 2019

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hongzi··on Human Artist and AI
Link to the artwork: https://i.imgur.com/p2lCwef.gifv
hongzi··on Show HN: Miru – discover/share/ask the precise locations of photos
It happens so often that I stumble upon some breathtaking photos on Instagram, immediately have an urge to add to my bucket list, but struggle so hard to find where the photo is taken. I have also seen so many people asking for precise location whenever I post some good photos. To help this need, me and my friends build Miru. We want it to be a platform for people to discover, share or just directly ask where a photos is taken.

On Miru, the current main functionalities are

- Discover, choose and zoom in/out any location, search this area, and scroll through the photos and see where they are taken.

- Ask & find, see what other users are asking for. Each circle is a rough location of the photo. Help answering with precise location if you are a local expert. Successfully found photos will join the discover page.

- Collections, everyone can build a bucket list of places to go.

- Upload, share or ask for the precise location of photos from a local file or from an Instagram link.

- (Weather, a related project that we built, predict/notify epic sunset/sunrise)

We are currently building a reward mechanism to recognize people who share or answer the location of a photo. For example, it can come in a form of bounty. Multiple users are interested in the same photo, jointly pay some points to who gives a correct answer. Using the points, one may unlock photo locations that only few knows.

Let us know if you have any thoughts and feedback :) We can be also reached at contact@miru.app

hongzi··on Show HN: Epic Sunset/Sunrise Prediction
Thanks a lot for the suggestion!
hongzi··on Show HN: Epic Sunset/Sunrise Prediction
I'm a hobbyist landscape photographer. There have been too many times I missed the chance of going out for stunning sunset/sunrise. An accurate notification of epic sky would have helped me plan ahead much better.

So during the pandemic I wrote a python program. The pipeline is to (1) download daily cloud formation data from NOAA (https://www.nco.ncep.noaa.gov/pmb/products/nam/); (2) get a minute level extrapolation (NAM only has hourly prediction); (3) use a physical model to get the sun location and calculate the cloud color based on Rayleigh scattering (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rayleigh_scattering); (4) visualize the sunset/sunrise color on matplotlib Basemap; and (5) send out an email notification when the cloud is colorful enough for long enough.

Me and friends tested it for the summer and it was pretty accurate (good true positive). Some photos we got are in https://crispysky.com/#demo

It turns out the entire calculation for the US continent was pretty fast (each tile on the map can run the computation in parallel). After downloading the data from NOAA, serving the notification for me and my friends or serving thousands of people should almost cost the same. So I wrote this simple website to share the service :) The viewing experience is optimized for desktop users for now.

It's a small web service for fun but I would love to learn what you think we can further improve, for this website and for data-driven photography in general. Thanks!

hongzi··on Slowing the Speed of Light Down to 2 M/S–What Special Relativity Feels Like
I think the most interesting visualization is the length distortion around here https://youtu.be/udqihUBGuZ8?t=521
hongzi··on The Hardest Logic Puzzle Ever
More history: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hardest_Logic_Puzzle_Ever, https://www.technologyreview.com/2012/06/13/185681/the-harde...
hongzi··on One Gate, Multiple Locks
Very clean mechanical OR structure
hongzi··on Google Earth Timelapse
A nice technical inside look of the product: https://ai.googleblog.com/2019/06/an-inside-look-at-google-e...
hongzi··on Using Ground Relays with Starlink
Project website: http://nrg.cs.ucl.ac.uk/mjh/starlink/
hongzi··on Anyscale Raises 20M to Democratize Distributed Programming
A nice business insider article: https://www.businessinsider.com/anyscale-berkeley-databricks...
hongzi··on How to Get Startup Ideas (2012)
I really like the central theme of this essay. Can't agree more -- problems are more important than ideas. This also applies to doing good research in academia. Research shouldn't be about impress other people but should be about solving important (agreed by others too) problems.
hongzi··on Tesla recognizes a running horse
It's actually quite non-trivial given that Tesla's autopilot is purely vision based
hongzi··on Xbox Series X 4K gaming console
It looks like the spec would be similar to high-end PC?
hongzi··on Dota 2 with Large Scale Deep Reinforcement Learning [pdf]
I'm really impressed by the "surgery" operations to keep reusing models as opposed to toss old models and retrain when some small part of the game changes. Appendix B has some pretty good dive-in.
hongzi··on Elon Musk believes solar alone can power the entire US
Counter argument from Bill Gates: https://www.treehugger.com/corporate-responsibility/solar-en...
hongzi··on Google Year in Search 2019
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRCdORJiUgU

IMO though, Google's 2011 year review still remains the best Zeitgeist video of all time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAIEamakLoY

hongzi··on Better password protections in Chrome
I guess someone somewhere maintains a database of all leaked username passwords and this feature compares a credential with this database? Is that how this works?
hongzi··on IBM: Commercial Nanotube Transistors Are Coming Soon (2014)
Now that 2020 is around the corner, I'm wondering the latest technical development.
hongzi··on MIT EECS Department Reconstructed to EE, CS and AI
The reorganizational plan: https://www.eecs.mit.edu/news-events/announcements/eecs-reor...
hongzi··on Scientists find mysterious galaxies that don't have any dark matter
Nature Astronomy paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-019-0930-9
hongzi··on SpaceX takes 40 live mice and beer brewing to ISS
Live stream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfPoUROLw3M
hongzi··on Ask HN: Best book / resources on leadership, especially for tech teams?
Thanks for sharing! Julie is amazing!
hongzi··on Ask HN: Best book / resources on leadership, especially for tech teams?
Creativity, Inc. [1] It's not a textbook but a really fun read for the inside stories that pushed Pixar to its success. Maybe it's just me personally but I found it hard to follow some syllabus to learn management --- instead, I enjoy being inspired by other great managers through their concrete stories.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FUZQYBO/

hongzi··on New Circuit That Requires No Electricity
Science report: https://science.sciencemag.org/content/366/6469/1121
hongzi··on Cows on Russian Farm Use VR Goggles to Increase Milk Production
Very heated reddit discussion https://www.reddit.com/r/theydidthemath/comments/e2ii8m/requ...
hongzi··on If I Touched the Moon, What Would It Feel Like?
This related article about Moon's habitation condition is also pretty fun to read: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/08/science/apollo-moon-colon...
hongzi··on Half-Life Alyx Announcement Trailer
If the gaming experience is similar to what the trailer shows, this would be the closest to what a VR killer app should be
hongzi··on Tesla Cybertruck
It would be super cool if the cover of the back truck is a solar panel: https://www.tesla.com/xNVh4yUEc3B9/06_Desktop.jpg
hongzi··on Tesla Cybertruck
Interesting, the no rear-view mirror design is already approved by regulations and being deployed. Roadster shouldn't be far now +.+
hongzi··on 1000fps image projection on deforming non-rigid surface
This lab is doing a whole series of amazing stuff---

500ps hand gesture recognition system: http://www.k2.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/perception/zSpace/index-e.html

Robust tracking for moving objects: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7IL0Gvux7U

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