Brain Mapping Computers Google ‘Brain’

 

Brain Mapping and Artificial Intelligence, a heady mixture for the intellect.

Posting some news on this from the ‘Verge’

Brain Mapping.

 

Stanford Professor Andrew Ng is bringing back the idea of an artificial intelligence that can think like a person. With Google’s Deep Learning project, he’s creating machines that take a multi-layered approach to information, building up knowledge and figuring out concepts by passing data between various networks that can each recognize a small piece of it. The approach is designed to mimic how the human brain processes information with neural networks, and it’s starting to work — last year, Google’s “brain” figured out how to identify cats in YouTube videos without being told that the concept of “cat” existed.

When he was a kid, Andrew Ng dreamed of building machines that could think like people, but when he got to college and came face-to-face with the AI research of the day, he gave up. Later, as a professor, he would actively discourage his students from pursuing the same dream. But then he ran into the “one algorithm” hypothesis, popularized by Jeff Hawkins, an AI entrepreneur who’d dabbled in neuroscience research. And the dream returned..(Wired)

..

This ties up nearly with the Brain mapping project of  EU.

Graphene — a thin, flexible atom-thick layer of carbon arranged in a honeycomb pattern — could one day revolutionize our electronics industry, and the European Commission hopes to spur development with up to €1 billion ($1.33 billion) in funding. The EC hasofficially announced two flagship projects for its Future and Emerging Technologies program, which will fund hundreds of research groups. The first will focus on developing practical uses for graphene, by integrating it with existing silicon-based technology or replacing silicon altogether. One long-running goal is to build cheap, efficient, and flexible semiconductors based on graphene, which the EC calls the “wonder material of the 21st Century.”

The second flagship is the “Human Brain Project,” whose goal is to create a detailed map of the human brain. With a sufficiently detailed model, researchers hope they can facilitate new insight into treating neurological diseases, developing medications, and even creating parallel computing systems based on how humans think. Two other finalists, not chosen as flagships, were a plan to promote wearable health devices and a supercomputer that would track economic and social shifts.

Each of the two winning projects will receive €54 million ($72 million) in 2013, distributed over 100 research groups for graphene work and 87 institutions for the Human Brain Project.

Source:

http://www.theverge.com/2013/1/28/3924332/european-commission-funds-graphene-and-human-brain-project

 

Blogging Thoughts On Hosts Themes Widgets

I have been receiving emails and in the form of comments, that I write on Blogging, provide some tips.

Blogging.

I do not presume to be a good blogger, but I shall put down some points I have learnt over the past four years, things I have learnt by making mistakes.

Points I make here may be used as a starter  and there are good bloggers and more technical savvy people are around, one can seek their help.

Let me reiterate I am a totally ignorant person of Computer and the Internet, let alone the terms like ‘Hosting’ etc.

Hosting.

I am writing on WordPress platform, that too in WordPress .com .

There are others like Bloggers of Google.

I do have blogs there.

WordPress,to me, may not look as flashy and rich as Bloggers,I find that very easy to write and the technical problems like texts disappearing, blogs not being visible ,images do not show,Links not displaying properly are very few and far in between.

And in such cases WordPress attends to them immediately with practically no lead time..

If they have a problem, they let me know and once they are set right, they inform me again.

In some cases, they inform me in advance.

Though Bloggers is very appealing and has a wide variety of formatting, to me it seems, that you have to do it by yourself, and that is too dicey for me.

But WordPress does every thing for me, I just concentrate on writing.

And too many options and I am lost as to what to choose in terms of Themes and Design.

Choosing.com,org,.net.

I am told there are some technical reasons for the difference but I am assured by WordPress is that your readership will not be affected by choosing any of them.

Going professional might help in terms of making the site design more appealing and will help one monetize better.

That is your choice.

So long as the platform on which you write does not give you headaches in terms of not displaying your posts,  your search results appear on the Internet, your problems are attended to immediately that Hosting should do.

Be it WordPress or Blogger.

I have not detailed about the other Hosts as it would beyond the scope of this post.

Themes.

This , again , is a question of personal choice.

If one wants Glitzy you have it..

But the more Links, Widgets, complicated Designs, the loading time becomes slower and that affects your Readership.

Keep the Widgets to the essentials to keep the reader engaged, from his stand point, not your own.

Apart from Meta description, Log in details,Follow,provide Widgets for Categories,Tags, Archives,Recent Posts,Top Posts and anything more is optional.

If your post is Photography oriented check with the Hosts for tips.

Too many Links in a Page or even in Home page affects the Loading time of your site.

The purpose of a Blog is to be read, primarily.

Make sure it is simple and readable, with reasonably standard fonts and size”do not use fancy stylish fonts, they may appeal to you, not necessarily the reader.

Avoid high lighting(actually this point should come under ‘Content‘)  or keep it to the minimum and Caps is strict”.No No”

I started off with DePo Masthead Theme of WordPress(three columns, I like it very much).

Then as my son told me repeatedly that my Blog looked like a scribbling pad, I switched to WordPress Sunspot Theme.

It looked very good to me.

In a week I started receiving suggestions that I change the design to some thing simple and more readable as the color combination was affecting readability.

Now I am using the Theme ‘Able’

I received feedback it is good.

Browsers.

I have used almost all of them,Google Chrome,Mozilla,Safari et al.

Google Chrome and Mozilla are very good.

Mozilla has very rich features in terms of easy sharing tools and convenience in writing .

But where Google Chrome scores over is that Google Chrome feels light to touch while Mozilla is heavy.(This is the best I can describe this point, I do not what it is.

So I am with Google Chrome for writing and with Mozilla for sharing.

More posts on Blogging follow.

 

 

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Google Launches Google Nose YouTube To Be Shut

Google, as an innovation has launched Google Nose.

Google has been , of late, been reallocating its priorities, like closing down Google Reader and trying ti focus on six or seven products.

Now it has come out with Google Nose. with it  you’ll be able to stop and smell the roses.

Introducing Google Nose

Beta version has been introduced.

As with Beta versions it is optimistic to expect them work at all times!

http://www.google.com/landing/nose/index.html

YouTube shut down.

The platform launched eight years ago, and some of us have gotten so distracted by YouTube videos that we’ve forgotten that the whole thing is actually a competition. Or, YouTube never actually mentioned that it was a competition. Either way, that competition, called YouTube, is coming to a close.

To decide who has made the best YouTube video of all time, the company has put together an expert panel of judges, replete with film critics, prolific YouTube commenters, and YouTube celebrities including Charlie from “Charlie bit my Finger” and Antoine Dodson of “Antoine Dodson News Blooper (Original).”

YouTube has over 30,000 technicians working tirelessly to narrow down all the YouTube submissions that have come in over the past eight years. The judges will then spend the next decade discussing which video should ultimately win.

Tomorrow, at midnight, the site will be shut down and all of its content will be permanently deleted. YouTube won’t be ressurected until 2023, at which point the only video on the site will be the winner of this competition. That said, the winner won’t be chosen for another decade, but you can watch the first 12 hours of judging live-streamed from YouTube’s L.A. offices tomorrow.

Talk about slow and steady, right? Will people in 2023 remember YouTube?

http://techcrunch.com/2013/03/31/youtube-announces-that-it-has-been-an-8-year-contest-will-shut-down-on-april-1-to-determine-the-winner/

april

 

Google Reader To Be Taken Off July 2013

Google Reader , the RSS Feed of Google is being taken off from 1 July 2013.

The reasons.

Google Reader Logo.

Decline in Google reader usage .

Google wants to concentrate more on fewer products.

“Posted by Alan Green, Software Engineer

We have just announced on the Official Google Blog that we will soon retire Google Reader (the actual date is July 1, 2013). We know Reader has a devoted following who will be very sad to see it go. We’re sad too.

 

There are two simple reasons for this: usage of Google Reader has declined, and as a company we’re pouring all of our energy into fewer products. We think that kind of focus will make for a better user experience.

 

To ensure a smooth transition, we’re providing a three-month sunset period so you have sufficient time to find an alternative feed-reading solution. If you want to retain your Reader data, including subscriptions, you can do so through Google Takeout.

Thank you again for using Reader as your RSS platform.

Google official Blog.

http://googlereader.blogspot.in/

Some alternatives.

Netvibes

Google Reader has always been the favorite here in the office, but a few of us have long held secret crushes for Netvibes, which is really very similar to Reader once you switch it out of the default “widgets mode.” Netvibes has lot more functionality than Reader, too (and some of them cost money!) — but at the expense of usability.

Importing your Reader OPML file into Netvibes is as simple as clicking “Add content” and then “Import.”

iGoogle

If you only have a few feeds — ExtremeTech and a handful of newspapers, perhaps — theniGoogle is well worth checking out. The only caveat is that it doesn’t accept OPML files (why not?), so you have to do a little bit of hacking to make it accept your exported Reader feeds. It’s also worth noting that iGoogle will be shutting down in November 2013, so this is only a temporary fix.

Feedly

A very different take on RSS feed aggregation, Feedly takes the form of a browser add-on for Firefox, Chrome, and Safari, and also an iOS and Android app. Feedly takes your feeds and turns them into a magazine-type view. Its sharing features and integration with social networks is top notch.

NewsBlur

By far the youngest kid on the block, but by no means the weakest, NewsBlur is a beautiful, slick, fast-paced and innately intelligent RSS reader. NewsBlur seems to be unique in that it combines RSS feeds and headers with actual websites: so for example, you can quickly surf through the headlines on the ExtremeTech’s site from within the NewsBlur site (just try it out if you’re having problems visualizing it — you don’t have to sign up to see what it’s like).

http://www.extremetech.com/computing/101011-6-google-reader-replacements

 

Revenge Porn!?

I have heard of people trying to blackmail with photos taken unawares of the person involved, circulating them through MMS and by posting on Websites.

Now comes the story of a chap who posted his Girl Friend‘s naked Photo on Website.

The story does not stop here.

His ex girl friend posted his photos in retaliation!

Read his reason for posting it on Web sites.

Revenge Porn.

‘First of all, what exactly happened between you and your ex-girlfriend?
What happened was, and I regret it now, I sent pics of her to a couple of friends, and they kind of sent them around. They didn’t really get posted on too many websites, at first it was mostly via email. Then to get back at me, my ex and her friends posted my pictures on several of those revenge porn sites. They also made a webpage.

Did you do anything when your friends started to post the pictures of your girlfriend online?
I didn’t think they were gonna get spread around the way they did. It’s still my fault, but I didn’t intend to do what ended up happening. Once my friends started sharing them, it was pretty much too late at that point.

So you just let it happen?
Yeah, she was obviously very upset and I wasn’t very nice to her back then. I just pretty much ignored her.

Why’d you ignore her then?
We had kind of a bad break-up; I caught her cheating on me, so that was kind of where I was at.

I thought you cheated on her?
Yeah, I know she says I cheated on her, so it’s kind of a he said/she said type thing….

http://www.nerve.com/love-sex/i-posted-revenge-porn

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