Category Archives: –

“The Death of Moore’s Law Will Spur Innovation” by Andrew Huang

“As transistors stop shrinking, open-source hardware will have its day.

Companies that produce open-source hardware are few and far between. At least, they are if you define them in the usual way: an enterprise that provides documentation and permission sufficient for others to re-create, modify, improve, and even make their own versions of the devices it sells. And although open hardware has made strides in recent years—including an increasing number of companies adhering to these practices along with the establishment of the Open Source Hardware Association—it remains a niche industry.

You might guess the reason to be simple—such companies must be set up and run by idealists who lack any hardheaded business sense. Not true! What’s held back the open-source hardware movement is not a lack of business acumen; it’s the rapid evolution of electronic technology.

The reasons for this are subtle, but as I will explain below…

“Will You Be Able to Read this Article in 1,000 Years?” BY DAVID SHULTZ

“If you ask Anthony Weiner, digital records—especially those on the Internet—can seem impossibly hard to get rid of. When a picture or document is reduced to a series of 1s and 0s, it becomes transmissible, reproducible, downloadable, and storable. You can’t burn digital books, and ideas like cloud computing make it possible to back up data in multiple places, ensuring even an accidental fire won’t incinerate your thesis or wedding photos.

The digitization of data gives it protection from physical catastrophes, but, as it stands now, it’s far from eternal. The problem isn’t so much that the data itself might be lost, but that there will be no way to read it. 

Try opening a WordPerfect document …“

Business Insights from Satellite Images

Orbital Insight uses image processing, neural networks, machine learning, and statistical analysis in search of insights from satellite images
The convergence of more powerful big data analysis tools, more intelligent machine learning algorithms, and more readily available satellite imagery has laid the groundwork for Orbital Insight. Many of Orbital’s customers are companies seeking information independent from government sources. 
So far, the company claims to have developed data products that forecast end­of­season crop harvest based upon mid­season spectral analysis and quarterly retail performance based upon counting cars in parking lots, as well as measure the rate of construction in China’s real estate sector and the fluctuations in global crude oil inventories months ahead of similar figures reported by other organizations. More…
 

What Jimi Hendrix and (almost) every performer at Woodstock was paid

in times of streaming and debate over live musician performance appreciation, a peek into Woodstock fees to artists:

List of artists and value, with 2015 parity values in parenthesis :
1. Jimi Hendrix: $18,000 ($115,000)
2. Blood, Sweat and Tears: $15,000 ($95,000)
3T. Joan Baez: $10,000 ($63,000)
3T. Creedence Clearwater Revival: $10,000 ($63,000)
5T. The Band: $7,500 ($48,000)
5T. Janis Joplin: $7,500 ($48,000)
5T. Jefferson Airplane: $7,500 ($48,000)
8. Sly and the Family Stone: $7,000 ($45,000)
9. Canned Heat: $6,500 ($41,000)
10. The Who: $6,250 ($40,000)
11. Richie Havens: $6,000 ($38,000)
12T. Arlo Guthrie: $5,000 ($32,000)
12T. Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young: $5,000 ($32,000)
14. Ravi Shankar: $4,500 ($28,500)
15. Johnny Winter: $3,750 ($24,000)
16. Ten Years After: $3,250 ($20,000)
17T. Country Joe and the Fish: $2,500 ($16,000)
17T. The Grateful Dead: $2,500 ($16,000)
19. The Incredible String Band: $2,250 ($14,000)
20T. Mountain: $2,000 ($12,700)
20T. Tim Hardin: $2,000 ($12,700)
22. Joe Cocker: $1,375 ($9,000)
23. Sweetwater: $1,250 ($8,000)
24. John B. Sebastian: $1,000 ($6,300)
25T. Melanie: $750 ($5,000)
25T. Santana: $750 ($5,000)
27. Sha Na Na: $700 ($4,500)
28. Keef Hartley: $500 ($3,100)
29. Quill: $375 ($2,400)