Thoughts on science and tips for researchers who use computers
They say we live in the age of "post-truth", Or, without euphemisms, the age of lies. After a student surprised me with an unexpected experiment, I can now back up this feeling with data: In just 10 years, serious journalism has embraced clickbait. The class assignment In one of the courses I teach, students have to train several predictive models to determine whether a set of headlines are real…
As many of you already know, I'm a university professor. Specifically, I teach artificial intelligence at UPC Each semester, students must complete several projects in which they develop different AI systems to solve specific problems. Along with the code, they must submit a report explaining what they did, the decisions they made, and a critical analysis of their results. Obviously, most of my…
Unbridled optimism, unlimited funding, and the promise of unprecedented returns: the perfect recipe for a tech bubble. But I'm not talking about 2025. Throughout AI history, researchers have been predicting the arrival of artificial general intelligence (AGI) in just a few years. And yet, it never comes. There have already been two major crashes of this kind, giving birth to a new term: the "AI…
It seems "bashing Twitter" is the new countercultural trend. I grew up in Spain in the 90s, and many people either don't remember or nostalgically idealize the credibility of traditional media. Like many 90s kids, I discovered role-playing games, heavy metal, Japanese anime, and video games. It just so happened that my hobbies turned out to be The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. The press and…
Many companies have been trying to disrupt email by making it proprietary. So far, they have failed. Email keeps being an open protocol. Hurray? No hurray. Email is not distributed anymore. You just cannot create another first-class node of this network. Email is now an oligopoly, a service gatekept by a few big companies which does not follow the principles of net neutrality. I have been…
This week I attended Saastr Europa , the biggest SaaS event in Europe. Of course, everybody talked about the current SaaS "situation". If you couldn't attend, don't worry. I got you covered. Here are the top 13 actionable learnings to sail smoothly through this crisis. 1. The crash is real for public companies, not so real for early stage. SaaS as a category is growing. But none of that matters.…
The Apple Studio Display is, unquestionably, a very good monitor. But the real question is, should you pay €1,800+ for it ? I have been asking that question myself for the past ten days. Today I decided that while I can't recommend it, I will not return my new monitor. Here's why. The Pros I replaced my Benq 27" 2560x1440 IPS LCD display with the Studio Display. These are the main benefits: The…
If you feel like your Google searches are less and less effective, you are not alone. Michael Seibel, partner at YC and a very good technologist, wrote a Twitter thread which generated thousands of comments on HN The Internet before Google You may remember the pre-Google internet, where it was difficult to find content online. Information was spread between the web, gopher, BBSs, newsgroups, and…
About a month ago IBM introduced the Eagle, its first 127-qubit quantum computer . And it's breathtaking, both on the inside... ... and the outside Interestingly, this is not just frivolous design. Besides the futuristic looks, quantum computers require some very peculiar architectural designs. What makes quantum computers special Regular computers like the one you're using right now store data in…
The reMarkable is a premium e-ink notebook. Imagine a Kindle, but you can write on it. It has become my daily notebook. I take all my meeting notes on it, dump my ideas and designs, and carry it with me everywhere. As a bonus, it also has replaced my Kindle and my relationship with ebooks and "read it later" in general. I have been using a reMarkable for six months. It is a great product, but the…