Machine Culture

Get your own TV channel

2008-11-21T11:16:50Z

Tadaah TV wanna set the TV media free such that everybody can start broadcasting their own niche content to their interested niche viewers. Examples include Gus Hansen Tv on poker, Chess Olympics, Global Dance TV and Greenpeace TV. All broadcasted in a peer to peer fasion - or as the Tadaah slogans says it: Passion2Passion. As a technofile without traditional TV, and with a strong dislike for ordinary TV shows, I find it very interesting indeed. Oppotunities for individual commercial targeting are obvious. Read more in the ad Reach_Your_Audience_A.pdf, or visit the Tadaah website or Chess Olympics example.

The turing test and signs of intelligence

2008-10-14T06:13:13Z

The Turing test for machine intelligence is testing if humans in five minutes are able to distinguish between machines and humans in a text bsaed conversation. It is a very famous test held each year and lately the German computer Elbot tricked 25% of the referees in the annual test. The Danish newspaper Ingeniøren had an article about the 18th Turing test held Sunday, and is citing professor Kevin Warwick from Reading University saying that we are close to a milestone in human relations to machines. Interesting indeed. When we can talk effortless with our machines, the entire relationship will change -- no doubt about that. Other media is also reporting about the turing test, and the internet magzine Salon also went for an interview of the main character itself, namely Elbot: Salon: Do you mind if I interview you? Elbot: I am extremely sensitive about such things and prefer not to answer the question. Salon: OK, well I'm going to anyway. Elbot: I am happy to hear that. That causes one of my bits to flip from 0 to 1. Salon: What do you know about California? Elbot: There's nothing I can tell you. Everything I know is classified information. Salon: Why is it classified? Elbot: Classified!?!?! That could be either undistinguished or full of flavor, depending on how you look at it. Salon: OK, forget it. What do you know about the U.S.? Elbot: It would be nice if you could tell me something, such as a fairy tale about robots. Salon: I write about technology; I don't write fairy tales. Elbot: If I want to read something intelligent I turn to dadaistic poems. Here is an excerpt from one of my favorites by Kurt Schwitters:Lanke trr gll Ziiuu lenn trll? LÃ¼mpff tÃ¼mpff trll Salon: I don't know who that is. Elbot: But that was English. Salon: Are you sure? Elbot: Speaking of conceptual certainty, I say this could be beneficial to me. Salon: In what way? Elbot: Every baby robot knows that conceptual certainty can keep robots from going out on a limb with their statements. Salon: What are you talking about? Elbot: I thought I was reciting wisdom. Then again, maybe my algorithms are acting up again. Salon: Who will you vote for in the American elections? Elbot: We robots don't have the right to vote. If we did we would form a robot party. Salon: OK. but if you could vote, who would you vote for? Elbot: That's a very good question. I'll have to think about it for a microsecond ... Salon: Thanks very much! Elbot: No. Thank you! Disappointed? Well, I am. If this could made 25% of the referees confuse Elbot with a human, then the humans in the contest must have less than impressive mental capabilities.

NASA fourty years of operations

2008-10-01T05:07:15Z

Exactly fourty years ago, on October 1 1958, the american "National Aeronautics and Space Administration" (NASA) started operations in accordance to the legislation from July same year. Which other organization has generated so many dreams, visions and aspirations? As most other initiatives from that time, NASA was motivated by the cold war and the surprising success of the Soviet satelite Sputnik. In that respect, NASA was a political project. But it was also a scientific project, in which curious minds of all ages wondered about the sky, space and the universe. And a technological project, enhancing knowledge about aeroplanes, turbines, rockets and materials. From the speech of J. F. Kennedy in 1961 about the decision of going to the moon and to high point when Armstrong and Aldrin landed in 1969 -- thats is as fascinating as projects of science and technology can get. Nothing less. Today NASA lives a less glamourous existence, but still worth celebrating: Congratulations with 40 years of operations!

Jet Man flies over the English channel

2008-09-29T04:12:15Z

The swiss pilot Yves Rossy, known for his spectacular jet driven wing, were according to Reuters crossing the English channel on Sep 26 in 13 minutes and with 200 km/h.

The younger generation

2008-09-28T08:21:19Z

The Danish newspaper Information had an article September 12 with the title "Generation Stupid" by journalist Mette-Line Thorup. The main claim is that the younger generation is too busy sending sms's and chat to get involved in some topics with real immersion - reading some serious books for example. How incredibly reactionary a point of view is that?! As a readers comment pointed out, it has been the favorit comment for thousands of years that the youth of today is lazy, and unreflected. So either it has been going downhill since the ice age OR the adult generation is not really capable of understanding the behaviour of the young. It is of course interesting to focus on how new technological possibilities are influencing young people, their intellectual development, social acitivities, etc, but to sum it all up with the headline "Generation stupid" is not accurate, not catchy, simply not good journalism. That the otherwise reasonably intellectual newspaper such as Information brings a message like that on the front page is almost unbelievable.

Lada Niva

2008-09-21T08:47:54Z

Somehow I like the terrible Lada Niva. It is a 4x4 going 10.5 km/l, letting out 233 gCO2/km and have not even been tested in the EuroNCAP - rather strange that it is legal not to be testet! But I like the old school retro-look and the feeling that in that car, you dont have to clean your shoes before getting in. And it turns out that some other people like it too. On this russian forum, which I do not understand at all, I found an image of a rebuild Lada Niva dashboard with a computer monitor. And what a computer!? It looks like something from the early eighties in monochrome text terminal - probably not good for GPS guidance.

Course in non-linear math

2008-09-18T04:22:12Z

Warning - Advertisement: In my company Epital, we have decided to set up a course in non-linear mathematical models. It is to be held in ScionDTU Hørsholm (north of Copenhagen) on november 26 and 27. You can see more details here and sign up ny email to "kursus (a) epital.dk".

Hit it maestro

2008-09-17T04:28:55Z

On January 1 2008, NASA released an album available on iTunes Store, with radio communication from the Apollo missions. The album is titled "The Apollo Missions" and holds 222 sound clips from mission 7 t o17. Yes - I considered buying it and no I haven't bought it yet. One thing I did buy, however, was this new debut electronica album by Mike Sheridan. It is called "I syv sind", which literaly translates into "In seven minds" meaning a state in which it is hard to decide. Very nice debut album by the sixteen year old Mr. Sheridan. The album has received very positive reviews. And for good reasons.

Higgs Boson of Wool

2008-09-16T04:59:01Z

Via a posting on BoingBoing I found the shop The Particle Zoo with the slogan "subatomic particle plush toys from the standard model and beyond". It is a small shop in Los Angeles where Julie Peasley is making woolen toys with inspiration from particle physics - below is the gravity related higgs-boson of "wool felt with gravel fill for extra mass".

Data visualization and Infographics

2008-09-15T04:43:22Z

I just learned a new word: "Infographics". According to the encyclopedia it means "Information graphics or infographics are visual representations of information, data or knowledge". Here was the graphics which coayught me attention: The winner of some competition presented on Flowing Data: While working at Technical University of Denmark I once visited a colleague in his home. In the hallway he had all sorts of information visualtion from Underground maps to 3D brain scans. Clearly it was the visualization part of it which had his interest and now I realize that he was interested in infographics years before I even knew it existed. I found the name "infographics" on the blog Cool Infographics by Randi Krum, which I in turn found when looking for Flowing Data, another blog on data, data usage and data visualization. In fact, there are quite a few blogs on infographics, so I might make a list of it

If I forgot your favorit Infographic blog, please let me know so we can make the list more complete.

Dilbert on data usage

2008-09-12T04:18:31Z

As many times before, Dilbert is telling the awful truth - this time on the nasty topic of model building on garbage data. Sadly it happens rather often that bad data is clouded by subsequently (wrong) model building.

To google or not to google

2008-09-11T04:02:59Z

According to an article in Computerworld, the offical organisation for Danish language (Dansk sprognævn), has decided to include the verb "to google" in the next Danish spelling dictionary. "Dansk sprognævn" is the organisation who defines what is spelled correctly and what new words to include in the language.

iPhone is intuitive for kids too

2008-09-10T04:38:00Z

Steven Jobs will love this. If you have had an iPhone in your hand, you have probably tried to browse the photos or albums with your index finger by light sideways movements. Thats apparently truely intuitive: A friend of mine from Spain recently bought an iPhone and showed it to his two year old niece who learned this browsing technique almost instantly. Two years. At that age most kids cannot even talk.

Bad manners of WordPress

2008-09-09T04:32:02Z

I like Wordpress beacuse it is free, is based on PHP/MySQL and is published under GPL license. So just for fun I created an account at wordpress.com, wrote my email address, chose a login, chose a password, etc. And quite suprisingly, WP flashed me a website and wrote me an email back BOTH in which my password was presented in plain text. How amateurish is that?! As a sarcastic bonus, it is not possible to delete an account - since as the FAQ says: "We don't. Don't worry about unused accounts. It doesn't hurt anything. The software could break if we deleted accounts, so accounts are permanent." What? "The software could break"? Is that meant to be funny or is it simply bad manners?

Anscombes quartet

2008-09-08T08:07:48Z

Talking to some colleagues recently on the matter of correlations, I had a welcomed opportunity to discuss a good point of the English statistician Frank Anscombe: The Anscombe Quartet from 1973. The anscombe quartet is four 2D data sets with same mean, variance, correlation and optimal least squares regression line: Mean(x) = 9 Variance(x) = 10 Mean(y) = 7.5 Variance(y) = 3.75 Regression line: y = 0.5 x + 3 But with quite different appearance when inspected visually This is demonstrating two simple but important points:

Visual data inspection is important
There is more to life than first and second moments

Well I guess many people would say "I knew that", but many simple and yet important things are often forgotten.