The Boltzmann machine algorithm appears to be a good model for important brain processes like learning (https://www.simonsfoundation.org/quanta/20130723-as-machines-get-smarter-evidence-they-learn-like-us/): “It’s the best possibility we really have for understanding the brain at present,” said Sue Becker, a professor
In the beginning of June, I began wearing a Fitbit Flex (http://www.fitbit.com/flex). I decided to purchase one for two reasons. First, wearable computing is growing very quickly, and is increasingly more interesting as well. Second, the idea of measuring (a few elements of) my health on
Reihan Salam links to a post by Ross Eisenbrey which argues that government, not business or markets, is primarily responsible for innovation we’ve seen in technology: Mazzucato suggests that, given the extent to which tech companies like Apple and Intel owe their great good fortune to the federal government’
At WWDC this year, Apple announced the most dramatic update to iOS since iOS 2 introduced the App Store and SDK for developers. The update is also the most controversial. In 2012, Tim Cook fired Scott Forstall, Apple’s senior vice-president (SVP) of iOS, and distributed his responsibilities among
My thanks to Backblaze for sponsoring this week’s RSS feed. 1 in 2 computer users lose data every year. Back up all your data with Backblaze online backup. It’s unlimited, unthrottled, uncomplicated, and unexpensive. Don’t risk losing your music, photos, movies, and whatever else you’re working
I don’t have much time lately, so this piece will be shorter than I intended, but I want to write briefly about the NSA’s spying programs. The NSA is collecting, it seems, phone records for all U.S. citizens. They are collecting (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/
Randy Barnett explains Justice Kennedy’s DOMA decision (http://www.scotusblog.com/2013/06/federalism-marries-liberty-in-the-doma-decision/): Because the logic of Justice Kennedy’s opinion for the majority in Windsor is novel, it is likely to confuse observers as it seems to have confused the dissenters.
Regardless of the specific form of the federal government’s spying, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court’s structure is worrying: The surveillance court is a different world of secret case law, non-adversarial proceedings, and rulings written by individual judges who rarely meet as a panel. Judges generally confer only
Thanks to the folks at Themeco for sponsoring this week’s RSS feed. Themeco is proud to launch X, a first of its kind WordPress theme built in conjunction with leading business and marketing experts. To celebrate our release, we wanted to share a really powerful SEO technique that you
I haven’t posted anything this week both because I was in San Francisco until Wednesday evening and because iOS 7 has taken me a while to wrap my head around, but Marco Arment wrote what I think is one of the more interesting pieces about the update: One of
Dr. Drang on “free” (http://www.leancrew.com/all-this/2013/05/free/): First, you have to recognize that you’ve been “the product” your entire life. So were your parents and so were your grandparents. Television and radio, newspapers and magazines—they all sell your attention to their primary
Dmitry Itskov wants to unlock us from the prisons of our physical bodies and upload “us”—the sum of our brain’s connections that create “us”—into affordable machine bodies. He believes this will free us to live better, more meaningful lives: Mr. Itskov says he will invest at least