Julian's Polymath Explorations

This blog is primarily about knowledge and discovery in Science and Technology.  But the nadir of the human race during WW II is a sharp reminder that knowledge/sophistication without humanity is not even remotely good! Well, History falls among my interests, as detailed in my blog entry on courses I took (scroll to bottom.)  And WW II is a gripping chapter of history.  Personally, I had relatives who lived thru it... so that adds an extra sharp edge. In addition to the courses mentioned in the above blog entry, I have watched large numbers of both documentaries and dramatic films about WW II...  and I wrote down my impression and evaluation. All the fictional and non-fictional suggestions here are movies/documentaries I "really" liked or "loved" . I did NOT include the ones I disliked or felt lukewarm about it. All the blurbs are my own mini reviews, from the time I watched them. NON-FICTION Operation Valkyrie: The Stauffenberg Plot to Kill Hitler Informative, e

Yes, we all wish for Quantum Computers... but in the meantime we need something here and now!  Could Photonic Computers fit that role? Just about everyone has heard of fiber optics – using light for data transmission – but did you know that light can also be used for computing? There's a new commercial product expected for early next year (2022) . I contacted the CEO, Nicholas Harris, of a 4-y.o. startup, Lightmatter , interviewed in April 2021 here . Photonic computers, at least in their first commercial appearance, are essentially accelerator cards for Linear Algebra - and so of special interest for Machine Learning and some types of simulations.    Their claims are remarkable: 10X faster than some of the best GPUs using 90% less energy can be used with existing software stacks, such as TensorFlow commercially available early next year (2022) a lot of future growth, as additional wavelengths of light get used in parallel My own interest is pr

Ending Age-Related Diseases 2021 The conference just ended on Aug. 22.  Here's one of the talks... Link to conference  (Notes and screenshots taken - and sometimes annotated - by me.) Science at SENS Research Foundation 2021 Talk by Alexandra Stolzing , Professor for Biogerontological Engineering, VP of Research at SENS Research Foundation ("Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence".) This overview talk immediately emphasizes that the aging process involves multiple broad fundamental categories of physiological change.  Those are related to what are often referred as "the Hallmarks of Aging" , as I detail in my intro post on Longevity Science .  In this talk, 7 of those categories are identified, and given convenient icons (rightmost column) that make it easier to refer to them: The SENS foundation has both intramural and extramural projects happening, and tries to have at least one project in each of the above broad categories.  (But currently no projec

UPDATED Oct. 2023 - I was "married" to Relational Databases for many years... and it was a good "relationship" full of love and productivity - but SOMETHING WAS MISSING! Let me backtrack.   In college, I got a hint of the "pre-relational database" days...  Mercifully, that was largely before my time, but  - primarily through a class - I got a taste of what the world was like before relational databases.  It's an understatement to say: YUCK! Gratitude for the power and convenience of Relational Databases and SQL - and relief at having narrowly averted life before it! - made me an instant mega-fan of that technology.  And for many years I held various jobs that, directly or indirectly, made use of MySQL and other relational databases - whether as a Database Administrator, Full-Stack Developer, Data Scientist, CTO or various other roles. UPDATE: This article is now part 1 of a growing, ongoing series on Graph Databases and Neo4j But ther

UPDATED Feb. 2023 – When friends ask me what online courses I've taken, I say, "You'd better sit down!"   Yes, it's a long list – and in 2020 it has experienced an above-average burst of growth : my goal was to have at least some good things to remember that evil Covid year by... such as an exciting new batch of online courses. So, which of the courses I took would I recommend as good ones?  Virtually ALL OF THEM!  Think about it : why would I take, and complete, an online course that I don't think is good?  If I have a false start and don't like it, I don't finish it – and it won't be on this list! The following are 27 courses (at various levels) I took in their entirety, and I recommend as good ones to take – provided, of course, that they fit your background and interest. NOT included:  documentaries, short tutorials and the like.  Nor am I including courses I took in college or grad school, nor any classes I took in person, such as sa