Science & Technology

✒ Useful tips on how to set passwords in 5 levels:

✒ See what happens when FT fed bank names at random into an AI image generator (pictures made by Midjourney).

✒ “Failing to complete a task creates underlying cognitive tension, which is what makes you keep coming back to it. That’s why we find it easier to recall something that’s ongoing or incomplete than something that is done and over with. Rather than letting it be intrusive, we can actually use it to our benefit … Read More

✒ The value of being tangible. Mastery of digital technologies is vital. But a sense of touch, authenticity and humanity still matter.

✒ Conclusion from the article: “To attack a blockchain and shut it down requires gaining 51% control of the computational power or value of tokens staked to verify transactions. The more valuable the tokens, the more energy it takes to attack a proof-of-work chain, like Bitcoin, and the more money to attack a proof-of-stake chain, … Read More

✒ Some very valid points that resonate with me:

✒ Fair play.

✒ The “burden of knowledge”? In 2008 Ben Jones of Northwestern University formalised a simple yet powerful observation. The more knowledge humans have, the longer it takes a budding researcher to get to the frontier, and thus to push things forward.

✒ The author talked about Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act — a piece of US legislation passed in 1996 which has been dubbed the “26 words that created the internet” because it gave platforms (internet forums) legal immunity from any third party content they published — and how some people recommended amending such … Read More

✒ Taking digital twins to the next level.

✒ As we transition out of the pandemic, from emergency, to regression, and to recovery, we will encounter a complex psychological cocktail: delayed gratification, feeling of injustice, and a race to fill the emotional vacuum created by years of living with restrictions. In light of such difficult or even unbearable emotions, we may resort to … Read More

✒ “When patients are harmed, staff often get blamed. People forget the other suspect in the room, namely flawed technology, or some hidden man-machine interaction.” — Harold Thimbleby, professor emeritus of science at Swansea University.

✒ “It’s pronounced ‘jif’ not ‘gif’,” Stephen Wilhite said.

✒ Having worked on the technology for nearly a decade, the Fast Identity Online Alliance says on a white paper that their “FIDO credentials” are ready to be used which lets users log into online accounts using their faces, fingerprints and PIN codes straightaway. While the password-less authentication mechanisms has already been built, users will … Read More

✒ Experiments suggest that when witnesses to a simulated crime are confident of having identified the suspect in a later photo line-up, they are almost always correct. Similarly, if they are sure the suspect is not present, that is likely to be right too. However, just as one of the unavoidable frustrations of quantum mechanics … Read More

✒ Although I do not agree with the conclusion that NFTs are better thought of as a type of advertising market (i.e. valuations reflect a sunk cost rather than any sustainable long-term value), the article reminds us of the Garbage In Garbage Out problem, that: Just because something is scarce doesn’t mean it has value. … Read More

✒ Not only to simulate better, but also to stimulate better. From analysing like/share/comment actions and voluntary eye-ball movements, to tracking involuntary biological reactions to stimuli such as pupil movement, nose scrunching, and other micro expressions. The company plans to keep the prices of its headsets low. The company also said it is going to … Read More

✒ Another metaverse in the making, but this one may mess with your memories and subconsciousness, which will then be mixed with a pinch of imagination to create something that can be shared or traded with. It’s a gamified way to store memories and build an autobiography. Kind of creepy… given all the crazy stuff … Read More

✒ The avatars may seem funny making the look and feel of this virtual office a “gamification of work” thus too informal to be a thing. However, Chris Dixon reminded us that in tech, “the next big thing in technology often starts off looking like a toy.”

✒ The author suggests that cryptocurrencies lies in the intersection of three fields: cryptography (to ensure the integrity of transactions); game theory (to establish consensus on the state of the ledger); and economics (to design proper economic initiatives). From another perspective, one can argue that those who invest in cryptocurrencies are a combination of: Macro-economist … Read More