:: rushabh ::

New forms of text entry

Keyboards suck. We all know it, we admit it and yet we've been stuck with them for ages. We've gone through multiple computer revolutions and yet the only mainstream thing we invented for (human) IO with the computer was the mouse.

There have been lots of very smart people thinking about lots of very interesting ideas around how to make human computer interaction easier. We type with our fingers, which are capable of phenomenally complex gestures, yet the only interface we have with the keyboard is this silly binary key-up / key-down interface.

More importantly, the way languages are structured, not all letters / words are just as likely after a given letter / word. Researchers have (post invention of the type-writer / keyboard) come up with probabilistic models of languages, which allow them to assign subword probabilities to letters and sub sentence probabilities to words and so on.

So we have a probabilistic language model and a finger (or ten) that are capable of much, much more than pressing buttons. What do we do with them? One idea: Dasher.

The talk is long, but very, very worthwhile. And once you're done, make sure you download it and give it a whirl. Cars are fun to sit in, but a whole new level of fun to drive.

From NY to London

The google maps way.


# 24: Swim across the Atlantic Ocean (3462 mi)

./demotivate

Aaron Swartz puts things in perspective
.

The universe is a bunch of random particles shooting through space following a handful of simple laws. Through completely random and unintentional properties, some of those particles bounced together to form you. But, I swear, it was a total accident.

The morning fix

Seattle is the best place in the country (on the planet?) for caffeine. This cuppa is from Espresso Vivace, which is one of my two favourite coffee shops in the city (and I live walking distance to both of them! Yay!)

Human Computation

This talk is about a year old, but very, very worthwhile. Luis con Ahn on using humans to solve problems that computers find very difficult (image classification) in an interesting way. One outcome of this problem solving is that you can use this data to generate a set to train better image recognition software (training computers). Crazy stuff, but what I find the most fascinating is that Luis figured out how to make this seemingly mundane task fun.

The American Wombats

Jon and KT were here over the weekend and Ryan flew out to hang out with us all.

Best. Weekend. Ever.

Here's what we did:
Drank
Ate
Drank
Guitar Hero
Drank
Ate
Drank
Guitar Hero (plus drinking)
Museums and stuff
Drank
Leavenworth
Drank
Guitar Hero

Like I said, best weekend ever.

Oh and we formed a band. Had a rock concert. All in a normal weekend. Proof:

I got my bi-monthly dosage of culture via an Anousha Shanker concert this evening with some friends. For those that haven't heard the album - I'd recommend that you get it stat. Its not exactly classical Indian classical - more fusion than anything else. Really awesome album, I particularly like "Mahadeva" - which she classified as somewhat aggressive (it _is_ Shiva's destruction dance) and Voices of the Moon (she opened with this one).