Nerds Make Science Fun!

This is a relatively new computer project.

It’s a couple years old, and it’s making progress into the field of computer vision, or image recognition software.

As far as I can tell, it’s supposed to take an analyze an image, and based on visual cues like shadows, patterns, and then distinguish the objects and shade them according to their depth (foreground, middleground, background).

It’s pretty sophisticated, too. One of the test data they show you involved a laundry basket in front of an open window, exposing some scenery through the slots, along with other random household items. The software was able to  figure out that the scenery was all one “object” and marked it accordingly.

The test data seems to show that the software gets tripped up by some shadows.

There’s also a tab marked submit. If you think you can do better, you can download their test cases, code a program to analyze the images, and submit your results. They’ll show you how correctly you did and how you stack up against the other programs. Beating even one of them is a pretty big achievement, considering how hard they’ve been working on this.

Those with insane coding prowess, I encourage you to give it a shot.

I’m usually leery of posting straight links (at least now I am) but Cracked.com wrote something actually science-related.

It’s called 7 Man-Made Substances that Laugh in the Face of Physics.

If you’re a science geek, chances are you’ve heard of these. Likewise, if you’ve heard of these, chances are you’re a science geek.

The substances are:

• Ferrofluids (funky metal liquid)
• Aerogel (a solid that is 99% air yet insanely tough)
• Perflourocarbons (a liquid you can breath, though it will destroy your diaphragm)
• Elastic conductors (exactly what it says. It’s being used for rollable computer screens and such)
• Non-Newtonian Fluids (they act as either solids or liquids depending on how hard you hit them. Incidentally, this is the only one you can make at home. Cornstarch and water.)
• Transparent Aluminum (exactly what it says. It’s being used for something involving lasers. Technically, rubies and sapphires are also types of transparent aluminum.)*
• Carbon Nanotubes (If you haven’t heard of this, I am deeply saddened. But despite what you may have heard about them having trouble making big ones, they’ve done some crazy, useful stuff with them.)

Note by W: Rubies and sapphires posess their colors because they’re essentially aluminum oxide with extra chronium or some other substance attached to their molecules. Yay chemistry.

So I just started this SAT class at one of those test prep centers that are popping up everywhere. It’s very boring. But the absolute worst part is those stupid books you have to read to build vocabulary. Alot of you might not know what I’m talking about, so I’ll explain.

They give you these “novels” that are supposed to teach you vocabulary words by using them in a way that’s supposed to be interesting. This invovles putting them into stories. Very crappy stories. With very crappy characters.

The one I’m currently reading is about a bored (and slightly angsty) college student coming back to her home town for winter break. Her mother is head of the police department, and she ends up having to go undercover at a snobby private school to bust a drug dealer, but she accidentally falls in love/lust/whatever with him.

That’s totally original and interesting right? And the characters are totally deep and captivating?

What they should do is take books that are actually good and ask the author if they can use them. Then, just replace some words with SAT words and ta-da. Much better.

Unfortunately.

I moved houses (about 1 block) recently, and this unfortunately forced us to switch internet and TV providers, forcing us to ditch Comcast Cable internet and go with AT&T DSL.

If this is already sounding like a bad idea, you have good premonition. Turns out that the 25 bucks a month we save is not worth the pulling-out-of-hair. To give you an idea of how bad it is, the internet has a full second of lag. This makes fast-paced online games like TF2 nigh-on impossible to play.

So, for your convenience, I have compiled a list of do’s and don’ts for dealing with internet:

DO: Spring for a cheaper price.
DON’T: Spring for DSL.

DO: Attempt to get around your broken wireless card.
DON’T: Do that if your computer is separated from the router by two walls and a ceiling, or if you used a phone jack hookup in the first place.

DO: Attempt to ask electronic store employees for help.
DON’T: Expect them to have a “line starts here” sign anywhere near the tech support counter.

DO: Follow their advice.
DON’T: Expect it to do anything useful.

DO: Call your provider.
DON’T: Expect anything they do to be able to bypass the fact that DSL just plain sucks during high-load hours.

DO: Test for ping using the ping [website or ip address] regularly.
DON’T: Expect your results to be representative or consistent.

Oh well, happy summer!

Topology seemed like it was invented by someone who was stoned.

Edit by The T: Don’t you know? Drink your school, stay in drugs, and don’t do milk. Or something.
I went and “fixed” the videos so they’re embedded.
Also, topology is a pretty cool field, though I know very little about it.