Sunday, April 27, 2003

Researchers use lab cultures to control robotic device. I've already written about the "hybrot" -- the rat-brained robot -- here. Now, Georgia Tech researchers say that they can control the movements of this robot by a network of cultured neuron cells. EurekAlert! carries a new story about the "hybrot." Steve Potter and his research team in the Laboratory for Neuroengineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology are studying the basics of learning, memory, and information processing using neural networks in vitro. Their goal is to create computing systems that perform more like the human brain. Check this column for a summary and discover the potential usages of the "hybrot." [Smart Mobs] Really interesting article. Pretty darned good idea. Cyborgs here we come! 7:31:25 PM    comment []

Great article about Erann Gat losing his faith in Lisp and finding it in Python. 12:33:38 PM    comment []

Search for Radio using Google API Here is an EXTREMELY cool way to add search capabilities to your blog using the Google API. All you really need to do is sign up for a Google key (for your Google API searches) and use this code to add a nifty little search box to your blog. I've added mine below the calendar in my theme. I also used the same code to add it to my Radio Desktop Website template. That way I can quickly search the web, my blog, or the blogs I read with Google! ABSOLUTELY AWESOME!! 12:19:18 PM    comment []

Here's an interesting little piece of Bill Venner's Feb. interview with Guido van Rossum. He talks about Strong vs. Weak Typing in languages. It presents the Java/C/C++ view with the dynamic typing view. I guess I still don't know where I stand. I see languages like Lisp and Python and recognize the power of not typing your variables. However, an optimization in Lisp is to go back and type your variables. So, I guess I can understand the performance argument. However it's hard to argue with the productivity of dynamically typed languages. The cool thing about Lisp is you get both. 11:59:08 AM    comment []

Powerpoint of Etech Speech. You can download the Powerpoint deck from my O'Reilly Emerging Technologies Conference presentation. Here's a brief Wired News report about my talk. [Smart Mobs] Howard Rheingold's speech about Innovation and Collective Action 12:45:03 AM    comment []

Writing history with Microsoft's Office lock-in. No XML please, we're arbitrary [The Register] Oy. So, MS isn't going to let you define your own XML schemas in the next Office unless you have Professional or Enterprise. (Enterprise?) Very nice. Also, I see that they are sticking with the proprietary binary format instead of providing an open format like they had said they would. Guess Open Office is just a bit too good, isn't it? 12:18:44 AM    comment []

Federal Court Recognizes File Sharing's Legitimacy. CNet: Judge: File-swapping tools are legal. "Defendants distribute and support software, the users of which can and do choose to... [Dan Gillmor's eJournal] First bit of good news I've seen on the DMCA front... 12:13:14 AM    comment []

InfoWorld: Google eats own Pyra dog food. [Hack the Planet] Google using blogs for corporate communication. 12:10:50 AM    comment []

Daddy, Are We There Yet?. From Alan Kay's talk at the O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference, the gist of which seems to be that the last twenty years of computing have been boring, and there's a lot of stuff from the 60s that's still beyond what we have today: John McCarthy invented PDP1 interactive LISP -- a metainvention, the Maxwell's Equations of programming. Today is the 40th aniversary of the first interactive implementation by a 16-year-old Peter Deutsch. It was the first time a programming language became an operating system. [lemonodor] 12:05:12 AM    comment []

© Copyright 2004 Tom Pierce.