Julian's Polymath Explorations

  This is a very gentle introduction to the subject.  The subtitle is inspired by university courses such as "Physics for Poets"!  (if you're technically inclined, there's an alternate article for you.) It has been said that "The language of physics (or of God) is math".  On a similar note, it could be said that: The language of the biological world - or of any subject or endeavor involving complexity - is networks ('meshes') What is a network?  Think of  it as the familiar 'friends of friends' diagram from social media. Everywhere one turns in biology, there's a network – at the cellular level, tissue level, organ level, ecosystem level.  The weather and other earth systems are networks.  Human societal organization is a network.  Electrical circuits, the Internet, our own brains...  Networks are everywhere! What can we do with networks, to better understand the world around us, or to create something that we need? Broadly ...

(UPDATED May 2024)   Now that we have discussed a full technology stack based on Neo4j (or other graph databases), and that we a design and implementation available from the open-source project BrainAnnex.org  , what next?  What shall we build on top? Well, how about  Full-Text Search ?  This article is part of a growing, ongoing series on Graph Databases and Neo4j Full-Text Searching/Indexing The Brain Annex open-source project includes an implementation of a design that uses the convenient services of its Schema Layer , to provide indexing of word-based documents using Neo4j. The python class FullTextIndexing ( source code ) provides the necessary methods, and it can parse both plain-text and HTML documents (for example, used in "formatted notes"); parsing of PDF files and other formats will be added at a later date. No grammatical analysis ( stemming or lemmatizing ) is done on the text.  However, a long list of common word ("stop ...

Putting it All Together : a Technology Stack on top of a (Neo4j) Graph Database (UPDATED June 2024)  For many practical use cases, one needs a full data-management solution, not just a database.   So, armed with the Schema Layer discussed in the previous part , the next natural step is to add a web API and possibly a User Interface . This article is part of a growing,  ongoing  series  on Graph Databases and Neo4j   The Web API Layer / Data Manager The Web API Layer ("Data Manager")  is in some ways the most straightforward layer - because the "heavy lifting" is done by the Schema Layer.   I've been involved in projects that utilized an inadequate Schema Layer - and in those situations the API Layer ends up taking on an immense amount of responsibility that don't logically belong there; the end result being a lot of difficult, error-prone and non-modular development that feels like "pulling teeth"! By contrast, with a...

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 inte...

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...