There are folks who have worked their magic and tried to imagine how a redesigned and (visually) cleaned up Wikipedia would look like … I must say I like it very much. 😀
Tag: Internet Finds
The Thing About Global Warming
If you ever wondered why there seems to be no motivation to do anything (substantial) about global warning (on a political level) … have a look at Wikipedia’s list of companies by revenue … especially in the “primary industry” column.
Meanwhile there are (terrifying) numbers that say we should. :/
Learning at the Expense of Sleep is Bad
It seems learning at the expense of sleep is actually bad … I had a feeling this might be the case 😉
Die kleine Hagia Sophia
Ich wusste gar nicht, dass es eine kleine (Test-) Hagia Sophia gibt … anscheinend als “Generalprobe” für den Bau der Großen.
Amplifiying Subtle Changes in Videos
I was pointed to an awesome piece of research titled “Eulerian Video Magnification for Revealing Subtle Changes in the World.”
They have developed algorithms that allow them to amplify subtle changes in videos (color, movement) … and select desired frequencies at that. They have an awesome demonstration video:
General Motors streetcar conspiracy
Some car, truck and tire manufacturers as well as oil companies together bought up and dismantled competition from streetcars and electric trains for urban mass transportation in favor of road-rubber-bus-based systems.
Kids React to K-pop
One of the funniest episodes: Kids React to K-pop. 😀
“Flüchtiges, anstrengungsloses Denken führt zu einer politisch konservativen Einstellung”
Muhahaha … anscheinend korreliert mangelnde Zeit, über etwas nachzudenken mit “konservativen Ansichten”.
Die Verbindung steht 😉 … am Ende wird sich auch keiner mehr daran erinnern, dass
- es die Studie im Kontext des politischen Meinungsspektrums der USA zu werten ist und
- dass der Umkehrschluss unzulässig ist.
Aber wer denkt schon so weit … 😛
8 steps to success
Arstechnica has a nice piece on how to do science fraud and minimizing the risk of being caught. 😛
Old Games’ Source Code
Fabien Sanglard has written an interesting drill down into the recently released source code for Doom3. He tries to reason why certain things are the way they are and also had a few of his questions answered by John Carmack himself.
There was news about the source code for the Prince of Persia game on Apple II computers restored from a set of ancient floppy disks. There is also a great quote on why going through the trouble of restoring/releasing the source code of those games is something worthwhile.
“Because if we didn’t, it might have disappeared forever.”
Video game source code is a bit like the sheet music to a piano sonata that’s already been performed and recorded. One might reasonably ask: If you have the recording, what do you need the sheet music for?
You don’t, if all you want is to listen and enjoy the music. But to a pianist performing the piece, or a composer who wants to study it or arrange it for different instruments, the original score is valuable.
It’s possible, up to a point, to reverse-engineer new source code from a published video game, much as a capable musician can transcribe a musical score from listening to a performance. But in both cases, there’s no substitute for the original document as a direct line to the creator’s intentions and work process. As such, it has both practical and historical value, to the small subset of the game-playing/music-listening community that cares.