Computer Tackles Jeopardy This Week

The TV quiz show Jeopardy this week will feature an IBM Computer ("Watson") competing against the two winningest Jeopardy champions. My prediction is that the computer is going to win. I base that on the name of the machine -- not Blue J but "Watson." That's the name of IBM's founder …

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Kickstarter: A Crowd-Sourced Dragon's Den

Kickstarter is a service that allows you to raise money for projects easily: write up a proposal, come up with a set of bonuses that your funders get (You've watched PBS, you know the drill: "For \\(50, you get a lifetime license and a tote bag! For \\)100, you get …

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Goldilocks: A race-aware Java runtime - Microsoft Research

Goldilocks: A race-aware Java runtime - Microsoft Research.

This one's been in my backlog to post about for awhile. Not only is it interesting as a concept, I find it also interesting that it's a Java runtime and not based on the CLR. Technical reason or just researcher interest?

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Surfing "Jaws" At Night

The Eddie did not go, but the winter storms that have kept the waves big all January gave someone an opportunity to do something truly nutsy -- surfing Maui's "Jaws" break in the middle of the night.

Sure, it was a stunt and, for surfing, stinks of dissipation and decadence, but …

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Sho -- A "Playground for Data" Written in IronPython

Sho looks interesting, a .NET set of libraries, utilities, and an interactive console for rapid prototyping, data analysis, and visualization.

I am not sure how or if this interacts with Pivot, another Microsoft tool that seems to cover the same ground.

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90-second version of A Wrinkle in Time

"A Wrinkle In Time" In 90 Seconds from James Kennedy on Vimeo.

This is awesome: award-winning children's books retold as 90 second films. Although my nieces and nephews are probably too old for this, I checked the list of Newbery winners and was amazed by how few I'd even heard …

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