Neural networks are increasingly taking on jobs that used to be the preserve of the human brain . So Erik Bernhardsson decided to see what would happen if he threw 50, 000 fonts at a neural network and left it to chew through them. The results, it turns out, are pretty interesting. Read more…
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This Is What Happens When You Let a Neural Network Design Fonts
Wikipedia just turned 15 years old, but you wouldn’t know it from the nigh-on inescapable donation drives — the crowdsourced encyclopedia often seems as if it’s months away from extinction. The Wikimedia Foundation (its parent organization) may have a way to keep the site around for the long haul, however. It’s launching the Wikimedia Endowment , a “perpetual” support fund for Wikipedia and other Foundation efforts. The goal is to raise $100 million over the next 10 years, or enough to both improve its independence and give it room to grow. The Endowment may well be necessary. Wikipedia revolves around its free, no-ads approach to information, and there’s no guarantee that it’ll find enough people to chip in. This prevents it from having to turn to ads and otherwise compromise its relatively impartial stance. Moreover, the team is eager to add more videos and continue adapting to the mobile world — those expansions will cost money. The organization still has to be frugal (it’s not about to beat YouTube), but it shouldn’t be at risk of falling behind. [Image credit: Lionel Bonaventure/AFP/Getty Images] Via: The Guardian Source: Wikimedia Endowment
Because aviation isn’t already a perfect model for class war, privilege and the market’s ability to erode comfort, pleasure and humane treatment. (more…)
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Airlines try auctioning off seat-upgrades at the gate
“Star Wars: The Force Awakens” just pushed James Cameron’s “Avatar” aside as the top-grossing film in North America. In just 20 days of release, the seventh installment in the space opera saga has earned more than “Avatar’s” $760.5 million lifetime gross. From Variety : One important caveat is that this massive haul does not account for inflation. When pricing increases are factored in, “Gone With the Wind” remains the highest-grossing film in history with $1.7 billion and the first “Star Wars” is runner-up with $1.5 billion. “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” is in 21st place behind classics such as “The Sound of Music,” “E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial” and “Titanic.” Globally, “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” ranks as the fourth highest-grossing pic in history, having earned $1.5 billion worldwide. It opens this weekend in China, the world’s second-biggest market for film. Depending on how enthusiastically it is received in the People’s Republic, “The Force Awakens” could shoot past “Avatar’s” record $2.8 billion global haul.
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‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ overtakes ‘Avatar’ as highest-grossing film in US history
New York City has plenty of parks that revamp aging transit infrastructure: The High Line transforms a decrepit elevated rail route , the Lowline reclaims forgotten tunnels . But neither of those is as ambitious as the Green Line, a concept that would turn a major street into a linear park. Read more…
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A Totally Feasible Plan to Turn Manhattan’s Busiest Street Into a 40-Block Park
jjslash writes: For a few years now, Intel CPU overclocking has been limited to more expensive Core i5 and Core i7 ‘K’ processors. Skylake launched this year with the rumor of strong non-K processor overclocking through an adjustable base clock, but that never eventuated… until now. In overclocking circles it was rumored that BCLK (base clock) overclocking might become a possibility in Skylake processors, but it would be up to motherboard manufacturers to circumvent Intel’s restrictions. Asrock, Asus and a few other motherboard manufacturers are said to be issuing a BIOS update soon that will unlock base clock overclocking on Z170 motherboards. TechSpot has got an early look, overclocking a locked Core i3-6100 to 4.7GHz on air cooling. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Locked Intel Skylake CPUs Can Be Overclocked After BIOS Update
New submitter insitus writes: On 10 December, Germany’s new Wendelstein 7-X stellarator was fired up for the first time, rounding off a construction effort that took nearly 2 decades and cost €1 billion. Initially and for the first couple of months, the reactor will be filled with helium—an unreactive gas—so that operators can make sure that they can control and heat the gas effectively. At the end of January, experiments will begin with hydrogen in an effort to show that fusing hydrogen isotopes can be a viable source of clean and virtually limitless energy. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Germany Fires Up Bizarre New Fusion Reactor
In a surprise move, Apple just announced an external battery case for the iPhone 6s. Named the iPhone 6s Smart Battery Case, the battery extends the battery life of your iPhone 6s by up to 25 hours. The new accessory is available in black and white for $99 starting today. Read More
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Apple Releases First Battery Case To Eat Third-Party Accessory Makers’ Lunch
You know the drill. Once a city has spoken with Google about bringing Fiber into their hood, there’s a process for the city to go through. A lengthy one. Checklists. The whole nine yards. Two new cities are exploring Fiber with Google and they are Chicago and Los Angeles. Yes, San Francisco has been skipped again and I’m going to go cry into my slow internet from Comcast.… Read More
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Chicago And Los Angeles Are Next Up For Google Fiber
Before the sun sets on 2015, Adobe has another round of updates for its Creative Cloud software. The new features span a number of apps, but we’ll focus on Photoshop CC . To boost overall productivity, and to save you time and a few headaches, Adobe is giving the photo-editing software custom toolbars. This means that you’ll be able to add, delete and rearrange what appears in that set of tools on the left side of the interface. The new feature allows to you customize the layout of your workspace so that only the items you use are taking up valuable space. In theory, you’ll spend less time hunting for the tool you’re after, too. Slideshow-344396
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Adobe Photoshop update brings custom toolbars and artboards