Monthly Archives: May 2014
The 10 Algorithms That Dominate Our World
The importance of algorithms in our lives today cannot be overstated. They are used virtually everywhere, from financial institutions to dating sites. But some algorithms shape and control our world more than others — and these ten are the most significant.
Just a quick refresher before we get started. Though there’s no formal definition, computer scientists describe algorithms as a set of rules that define a sequence of operations. They’re a series of instructions that tell a computer how it’s supposed to solve a problem or achieve a certain goal.Â
- Google Search
- Facebook’s News Feed
- OKCupid Date Matching
- NSA Data Collection, Interpretation, and Encryption
- “You may also enjoy…”
- Google AdWords
- high Frequency Stock Trading
- MP3 Compression
- IBM’s CRUSH
- Auto-tune
Willie Nelson Donates Collection to the University of Texas
Willie Nelson may have spent much of his life on the road, but a good part of his artistic remains will rest forever in Texas, thanks to a donation by the singer to the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History at the University of Texas in Austin.
The donation includes a major part of the singer’s personal collection, including posters, platinum records, signed books, screenplays and posters, and letters and photographs from figures including Dolly Parton, Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson, Merle Haggard, Bill Clinton and Ann Richards. There are also personal items like Indian headdresses and spirit catchers, along with numerous gifts and tributes from fans.
The Nelson collection, which will be opened to scholars after processing, joins the Briscoe Center’s substantial musical holdings, which include some 50,000 field and commercial recordings, the John A. Lomax Family Papers, and the archives of the Armadillo World Headquarters, a concert venue in Austin where Mr. Nelson, still relatively clean shaven, made his first appearance in 1972.
Willie Nelson Donates Collection to the University of Texas – NYTimes.com.
What Is a Book?
… a book is its text. A book is a unique string of words, as good as its bits.
But printed books are also objects, manufactured objects, owned objects, objects that have been marked by pencils and time and coffee cups and the oils from our skin. “A book is more than a bag of words,” the project’s founder, University of Virginia’s Andrew Stauffer, told me. “These books as objects have a lot to tell us.”
Reading in Restraint: The Last Chained Libraries
In the Middle Ages, books were incredibly scarce, and although many wanted to share knowledge with the masses, they didn’t quite trust the public. So the chained library was born, and while most of these restrained reading collections have vanished, a rare few still exist, looking much as they did centuries ago.
Reading in Restraint: The Last Chained Libraries | Atlas Obscura.