If you haven’t done so already, you may want to start by reading the Preface to the Computing Series: Software as a Force Multiplier, Sections 1-3.
“Everything” you need for ultra-fast desktop search
1. Everything(tm) is an ultra-fast desktop search utility that can scan through hundreds of thousands of files in milliseconds using a pre-built and real-time updated index.
“Everything” brings order to information growing at scale (documents, photographs, source code, spreadsheets, etc.), and tames the problem of proliferating folder trees.
Everything is a fast desktop search utility that can index 1 million files in less than 1 minute, and generate search queries in milliseconds.
We’ve all been in the scenario of searching through electronic documents for a document you know you prepared three, maybe four weeks prior… maybe it was longer… and now you can’t remember where you saved it… or in what format: was it a quickly written text file, a word document, a few paragraphs within One Note, on a desktop post-it note, or did you email yourself from your phone?… After trying different Windows searches in various recently used folders and looking through Word, Excel, and PDF files, and trying to remember possible filenames to search for, at some point you prepare mentally for the moment when you will give up the search and attempt to redo the missing work, salvaging as much of it as you can remember.
The general problem of wasted effort locating information we know we have, occurs more often than we’d like to admit. With “Everything“, it can be better.
Building a fully analog electronic piano using only resistors, capacitors, and transistors, is an insightful experiment in electronic sound generation from first principles. I designed and built a 13-key analog piano in early 2019 using discrete through-hole components on a breadboard powered off a 9V DC battery. The design creates 13 astable multivibrator oscillator circuits, each able to be tuned to a given note frequency in the C5 to C6 range. The outputs of the oscillators are collected (mixed) to create a polyphonic analog audio signal that is amplified and run through an 8-ohm speaker. The device fits into an 11x25cm footprint. Check out how it sounds! (To hear the explanation of how it works, start at the beginning.)
Electronics is a gateway subject to modern technology, along with computer programming and applied mathematics. Getting started in electronics is easier than one may imagine and not prohibitively expensive. With the right approach, exploring electronics can begin for children as early as 3 years old. I’ve been play-testing these ideas with my children, Adam (3 yrs & 4 months) and Jasmine (6 yrs & 10 months), and a couple of teenagers (13 and 14 yrs). Read on for the journey plan, and a photo gallery of what we’ve built so far.
Adam having wired his first circuit and seeing his selected blue LED lit!
*New!* (29 Aug 2020) – Turtle Logo v1.8 (portable) is available! Developer kit with source code included. Suitable from ages 3 years to adult. (970 lines of Forth code).
1. Inspiring the next generation of technology builders.
A challenge facing parents and teachers is how to help children develop ‘builder’ relationships with technology rather than being limited to the passive consumption of content created by others. The consensus on what’s important for older kids and adults is clear: coding. This enables children to participate in the creation of their own technological “micro-worlds” — environments rich in educational potential.[14]
This autumn, spurred by having our own young children (one aged 4 years, the other 16 months), we began an experiment, the result of which is a Turtle Logo program for Windows computers (freely downloadable) that is simple enough to be accessible for children from 3 years and older, while providing an extensible platform that can grow with the child.
The long-term goal is to enable children to express their creativity, artistry, and natural ‘builder’ impulses using coding, computer graphics, and robotics as readily as the previous generation could using paints, brushes, and building blocks.
Turtle Logo – Inspiring the next generation of technology builders.
Updated: 2014-11-23 MetaMoji Note: A worthy digital replacement to Pencil & Notebook for creating freehand diagrams on Windows and Android.
Pencil & Notebook are hard to beat when diagrams, equations, and words are desired in roughly equal measure, which is common when working as an engineer, mathematician, or product designer. To be sure, there are good digital tools for subsets of these (example LaTeX), but not when all three are combined. But now there’s a new suite of digital freehand tools that are almost good enough to set aside the notebook and pencil permanently. The core of this toolkit is a vector-based graphics canvas (software) and an ultra-precise stylus (hardware).
Example of Freehand Digital Pencil, using Adobe Ideas. Courtesy of Simon Raper, Drunks and Lampposts
If you use Apple iOS, you may already be using Adobe Ideas, which does the job brilliantly and is free (see this excellent article by Simon Raper). [1] But Adobe has no plans to release this to either Windows RT or Android, so for the rest of us, that’s a show-stopper, until now, with MetaMoji…
Duelling with pistols. If you were the one issuing the challenge, your dilemma was that custom dictated that your adversary be allowed to shoot first. Only then, if you were still able to shoot, would you be permitted to seek “satisfaction”.
How much of an advantage does the first shooter really have? In this article, we build a simple probability model, and implement a numerical model in a few lines of R code.
Two gentleman face off in the snow. Convention dictates the challenged shoots first.
19-21.Oct.2015 (Paris, France) 2015 IEEE International Conference on Data Science & Advanced Analytics (DSAA) will consist of two main tracks, Research and Applications. The Research Track is aimed at collecting contributions related to theoretical foundations of Data Science and Data Analytics. The Applications Track is aimed at collecting contributions related to applications of Data Science and Data Analytics in real life scenarios.
Digital & Web Analytics | Predictive Analytics | Big Data Summits
14-15.May.2014 (London, UK)
At the Bishopsgate Conference Centre in London for this year’s Analytics Innovation Summit.
Booking.com: Data Science
6.Dec.2013 (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
At Booking.com’s head office in Amsterdam, one of the leading players in the eTravel space. The Booking team has a raft of interesting problems in front of them, a bunch of smart, capable data scientists, and a real appetite for applying statistical / machine learning techniques to unlock the next level of benefits. A refreshing visit!
Silicon Milkroundabout 6.0: Analytics
16.Nov, 2013 (London, UK)
At Silicon Milkroundabout 6.0 this weekend. Key question: To what extent are predictive analytics technologies at the heart of the next generation of startups?
(Location: The Old Truman Brewery, 81 Brick Lane, London E1 6QL)
Update:
There are several promising startups in UK’s East End (Silicon Valley lite). The interesting ones (to my mind) were in retail analytics, peer-to-peer lending, even a novel education startup attempting to exploit machine learning techniques. Although the recruitment atmosphere detracts somewhat, SMR is a useful way to assess the next batch of promising start-ups.
23-24.Oct, 2013 (London, UK)
At the Predictive Analytics World Conference for at least part of the Conference, schedule permitting. The programme can be found here: PAW 2013 Programme
Advanced Analytics | Big Data | Hadoop | Social Media | Digital Innovation
30.Apr-1.May, 2013 (London, UK)
At the Advanced Analytics Innovation Summit. This year’s summits are being held at the Lancaster London Hotel, London, UK. (PDF Programme)
(Online Programmes) Advanced Analytics | Big Data | Hadoop | Social Media | Digital Innovation
Crowd-Source Analytics & Entrepreneurship
9.Mar.2013 (London, UK)
At London Business School discussing the application of advanced data discovery algorithms for a new venture crowd-sourcing business concept.
SAP F&R User Conference
18-19.Sep,2012 (Dresden, Germany)
At the SAP Forecasting & Replenishment User Conference in Dresden, Germany, at the Maritim Hotel & International Congress Centre. This Conference is well attended by senior technical staff from SAF (Simulation, Analysis, and Forecasting) group, which has now become SAP’s Centre of Excellence based out of Schweiz, Switzerland after being acquired by SAP in 2009/2010.
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