Month: September 2017

🎧 This Week in Google: #409 Practical Telepathy | TWIT.TV

Listened to This Week in Google: #409 Practical Telepathy from TWIT.TV
Leo, Jeff, and Stacey are all off this week, so Jason Howell, Ron Richards, and Kevin Marks are in charge. The Essential phone will be a Sprint exclusive, but that doesn't mean you can't buy one and use it with whatever service you want. Google's successor to the Pixel XL may be getting even bigger, and might get made by LG this time around. The current Pixel XL will self-destruct on October of 2018. Google's cute little self-driving cars are self-driving off into the sunset. Google Drive wants to back up your whole computer. Softbank is buying Boston Dynamics. Google's Project Sunroof lets you know which neighbors have solar power. Facebook expands safety check in a possibly stressful way. Kevin's Pick: IndieWeb and IndieWeb Summit Ron's Pick: Astro Jason's Pick: pix2pix fotogenerator

The conversation about how Facebook is doing their safety check is intriguing. How should they be doing it better to inform people who might be concerned, but without creating undue stress to others who generally aren’t involved or nearby? This is particularly interesting to me as I’m often near to frequent forest fires in Los Angeles, not to mention the future potential of major earthquake events.

Checkin Sahara Restaurant

Checked into Sahara Restaurant
Birthday celebration

The kitchen opens up into the dining room at Sahara. The decor isn't much to look at but the food is fantastic.
The kitchen opens up into the dining room at Sahara. The decor isn’t much to look at but the food is fantastic.
The menu at Sahara
The menu at Sahara
The menu at Sahara
The menu at Sahara
The first course...
The first course…
With this church across the street, one expects some great Middle Eastern food.
With this church across the street, one expects some great Middle Eastern food.
I don’t often weigh myself, but a few people in the past week have said I look like I’ve lost weight. Since I recently unpacked the scale, I thought I’d change out the batteries and see what I’m up to. I was shocked to discover that I’m down to 169.3 pounds! I think this may be the first time in over 20 years that I’m sub-170. For most of the past year I think I’d been hovering around 185 with a high somewhere around 192.

I’m hoping that the changes I’ve made recently in the move will continue on. Perhaps I can get down to the 155-160ish that I ought to be for my height?

🔖 Upcoming Special Issue “Information Theory in Neuroscience” | Entropy (MDPI)

Bookmarked Special Issue "Information Theory in Neuroscience" (Entropy | MDPI)
As the ultimate information processing device, the brain naturally lends itself to be studied with information theory. Application of information theory to neuroscience has spurred the development of principled theories of brain function, has led to advances in the study of consciousness, and to the development of analytical techniques to crack the neural code, that is to unveil the language used by neurons to encode and process information. In particular, advances in experimental techniques enabling precise recording and manipulation of neural activity on a large scale now enable for the first time the precise formulation and the quantitative test of hypotheses about how the brain encodes and transmits across areas the information used for specific functions. This Special Issue emphasizes contributions on novel approaches in neuroscience using information theory, and on the development of new information theoretic results inspired by problems in neuroscience. Research work at the interface of neuroscience, Information Theory and other disciplines is also welcome. A special issue of Entropy (ISSN 1099-4300). This special issue belongs to the section "Information Theory". Deadline for manuscript submissions: 1 December 2017

👓 Decentralized Web Pt 3: Join the IndieWeb | Michael McCallister: Notes from the Metaverse

Read Decentralized Web Pt 3: Join the IndieWeb by Michael McCallister (Notes from the Metaverse)
In recent months, I’ve been learning a lot about the “IndieWeb,” an idea spread by folks who understand that the Web offers a unique platform where ordinary people without the financial clout of the 20th century publishing industry could still potentially reach millions with their ideas.

But to be honest, I’m not sure I can tell you why — and how — to join up any better than Chris Aldrich did in this piece on AltPlatform. So just go over there now.

I know Michael has been working at the IndieWeb bit for a while, so this is some nice praise.

Reply to Homebrew Website Club: One Year In by Jonathan Prozzi

Replied to Homebrew Website Club: One Year In by Jonathan Prozzi (jonathanprozzi.net)
There’s some amazing themes and plugins being developed for WordPress that handle some of the more complex technical requirements for implementing the Indieweb principles, so I want to now be able to focus on helping others through two methods of outreach. First, to help any current WordPress users understand and integrate Indieweb principles into their site. Second, to help anyone who is interested in setting up a site and open to using WordPress get an Indieweb web presence up and running from the ground up. This will remain the core thrust of my Indieweb exploration from now on, but I want to also deepen my knowledge of what can be done with WordPress. There’s lots of exciting things on the horizon, and I want to give back to both the WordPress and Indieweb communities through sharing my experiences and lessons learned from the last year.
Congratulations Jonathan!

I really appreciate your “Updated Goals and Purpose” section as they’re something I’ve been slowly beginning to crack away at as well. I’ve begun some work on a book geared toward Gen2+ users as well as doing some additional outreach. I’ve even got a domain registered to target that particular market.)

If you think it would help, I’m happy to help spitball with you to create a more cohesive plan that some of us can work on both individually and as a group.