Whoever invented USB-C deserves a Nobel Prize
We tech reporters like to complain about tech a lot. Whether it’s the invasion of our privacy, worrisome use of AI, or the death of the headphone jack, we can be a fussy bunch. But as I emptied out boxes of old tech gear to start the new year fresh, I couldn’t help but be grateful for one of the best decisions the tech industry has made in the past few years: adopting USB-C. Back in 2015, when Apple first introduced USB-C to the mainstream with the redesigned MacBook, I called it the one port to rule them all. These…
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Neural’s best quantum computing and physics stories from 2021
2021 will be remembered for a lot of things, but when it’s all said and done we think it’ll eventually get called the year quantum computing finally came into focus. That’s not to say useful quantum computers have actually arrived yet. They’re still somewhere between a couple years and a couple centuries away. Sorry for being so vague, but when you’re dealing with quantum physics there aren’t yet many guarantees. This is because physics is an incredibly complex and challenging field of study. And the difficulty gets cranked up exponentially when you start adding “theoretical” and “quantum” to the research.…
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Lead by leading
Managers have to wait for permission, because management requires authority.
But in every area of our lives, if we choose to lead, we can lead. Simply by beginning.
It might be that few will choose to follow, but then we can learn to get better at leading.
First we begin.
Take 15 seconds of your time to watch a drone fly by an erupting volcano
A volcano in Iceland called Fagradalsfjall had been dormant for 6,000 years. Then it erupted spectacularly in March. It just so happens that a lot has changed in 6,000 years, such as the fact we humans have drones. So, of course, drone pilots like Bjorn Steinbekk are flying theirs right into the molten lava. Just watch; it’s worth 15 seconds of your time. Somehow, the drone survived flying right past chunks of lava spewing into the sky. Good thing too, because that drone just so happens to be the pricey new DJI FPV. I said that drone looked ‘stupid fun’ in my announcement post,…
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Research indicates the whole universe could be a giant neural network
The core idea is deceptively simple: every observable phenomenon in the entire universe can be modeled by a neural network. And that means, by extension, the universe itself may be a neural network. Vitaly Vanchurin, a professor of physics at the University of Minnesota Duluth, published an incredible paper last August entitled “The World as a Neural Network” on the arXiv pre-print server. It managed to slide past our notice until today when Futurism’s Victor Tangermann published an interview with Vanchurin discussing the paper. The big idea According to the paper: We discuss a possibility that the entire universe on…
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Why aliens should be terrified of NASA’s new space telescope
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is set to launch real soon — on December 25 at 07:20am EST (12:20 GMT/UTC) to be precise — and the scientific community is buzzing with anticipation. Some scientists are excited at the prospect of ‘traveling through time’ to discover the origin story of our universe, while others hope it’ll help us connect the dots between classical and quantum physics. But at least one researcher believes the JWST could be a harbinger of ill tidings. In an interview over the weekend, world-renowned physicist Michio Kaku, one of the scientists responsible for string theory, told…
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Or just read more coverage about: NASA
5 spectacular photos of the universe taken by telescopes
The forthcoming launch of the James Webb Space Telescope offers unprecedented new opportunities for astronomers. It’s also a timely opportunity to reflect on what previous generations of telescopes have shown us. Astronomers rarely use their telescopes to simply take pictures. The pictures in astrophysics are usually generated by a process of scientific inference and imagination, sometimes visualized in the artist’s impressions of what the data suggests. Choosing just a handful of images was not easy. I limited my selection to images produced by publicly-funded telescopes and which reveal some interesting science. I tried to avoid very popular images which have…
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Marketing Leaders Are Amplifying Results by Tapping Into Audio
How does your brand sound? That’s a question that Adweek and panelists from Hinge, Molson Coors, Adswizz, Twitter, Samsung and more set out to answer at Adweek’s Spotlight: Audio event. For generations, audio has been used in advertising, from catchy jingles and catchphrases to emotion-invoking music. But Twitter’s Alex Josephson noted it’s also equipped for…Read More
The Evolution of Corporate Holiday Gift-Giving Can Actually Improve Workplace Culture
This year, we’ve seen that companies are spending twice as much on their employees this holiday season to show them love. Why’s that? Volume hasn’t doubled, meaning that companies are simply spending more money per gift for their employees to make an impact. Traditionally, promotional gifts have been more affordable items that can be branded…Read More