This Week I Learned - Week #50 2024

This Week I Learned - 

* In 2019, a team of Google researchers said they had built a machine capable of performing tasks that were not possible with traditional supercomputers. They described this machine, called a quantum computer, as a turning point in the evolution of information technology. Google said its quantum computer, based on a computer chip called Willow, needed less than five minutes to perform a mathematical calculation that one of the world’s most powerful supercomputers could not complete in 10 septillion years, a length of time that exceeds the age of the known universe. Quantum computing — the result of decades of research into a type of physics called quantum mechanics — is still an experimental technology. - NYT

* Daylight saving time was first adopted as a wartime measure in 1942. Setting clocks forward one hour in the spring and back an hour in the fall is intended to maximise daylight during summer months but has long been subject to scrutiny. Some health groups, including the American Medical Association and American Academy of Sleep Medicine, have said that it’s time to do away with time switches and that sticking with standard time aligns better with the sun —and human biology.

* Jorge Muniz is the author and illustrator of Medcomic, a project he started in 2013.  Medcomic is a series of educational medical cartoons designed to make learning complex medical topics easy and fun. Samples of his work are on his YouTube Channel and website. 

* Negotiators at the Saudi-hosted UN talks (COP16) on combating desertification failed to reach an agreement on addressing drought, falling short of establishing a binding protocol. This setback follows other recent disappointments, including partial failures in biodiversity talks in Colombia, the lack of a UN deal on plastics pollution in South Korea, and an unsatisfactory climate finance deal at COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan. The urgency is heightened by projections that droughts will affect 75% of the world's population by 2050.

* George Soros was a Hungarian refugee from the Holocaust who started with nothing. But his financial skills enabled him to build a fortune estimated at $44 billion. His most spectacular feat was to bet against the pound sterling in 1992, forcing Britain out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism. In the process, he made a billion dollars. Soros retired from finance, became a philanthropist and has donated an estimated $32 billion to thousands of programmes covering human rights, democracy, education, health and, in general, the cause of the Open Society Foundations (OSF). The concept of the organization is based on the philosophy propounded by philosopher Karl Popper in 1945, warning of autocratic enemies of freedom from both the right and left. Soros became a strong follower of Popper, taking OSF to 120 countries and donating liberally to institutions promoting liberty, equality and fraternity. When the Communist world collapsed in 1991, he financed programmes for promoting democracy and an understanding of liberal values in former Soviet and Warsaw Pact countries. - Swaminomics

* According to Petroleum & Natural gas minister Hardeep Puri, India’s dependence on traditional fossil fuel energy will reduce to around 30% by 2047, when the country celebrates its 100th year of Independence. - Times of India

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Datawrapper Makes Data Beautiful & Insightful

Datawrapper is an online data visualization tool available at datawrapper.de that lets you create charts, maps and tables. Here's the list of the different visualizations you can create - Bar Chart Stacked Bars Grouped Bars Split Bars Bullet Bars Column Chart Stacked Columns Grouped Columns Lines Multiple Lines Area Chart Scatter Plot Dot Plot Range Plot Arrow Plot Election Donut Pie Chart Multiple Pies Donut Chart Multiple Donuts Choropleth map Symbol map Locator map Table It is self-funded by its customers’ subscription revenue. It also provides a good Free Plan .  The Datawrapper “Created with Datawrapper” attribution appears at the bottom of the chart if you use the free plan. However, you retain full copyright to your charts, maps, and tables. To remove the attribution, you’ll need to update to Custom or Enterprise plan. The Datawrapper River is a place to exchange charts and maps with other Datawrapper users. After adding a chart to the River, anyone can use it and customiz...
Read more

GitHub Copilot Q&A - 1

Image
Key takeaways from the talk in Q&A format - What is GitHub Copilot and how does it work? GitHub Copilot is a suite of tools designed for code completion. It works by analysing the code and comments you type in your IDE and sending that context to GitHub. Copilot then uses OpenAI's language model (in December 2024, it is GPT 4o by default and you can also choose the preview versions of o1-mini & o1-preview if you like) to understand your intent and generate suggestions for code completion. You can then accept, reject, or modify these suggestions. What context does GitHub Copilot consider when making suggestions? Copilot considers the entirety of the file you are currently working on, not just the code from your cursor position upwards. It also analyses the content of other open tabs in your IDE, starting with those closest to the current tab. This helps Copilot focus on the most relevant information. Is it necessary to meticulously manage open tabs for Copilot to work effect...
Read more

Learning Resources for GitHub Foundations Certification

Image
I passed the GitHub Foundations exam today! This exam covers collaboration, GitHub products, Git basics, and working within GitHub repositories. I found the following resources most helpful - * GitHub Foundations Certification video course (Jan 2024) by Andrew Brown. It is almost 10 hours long and the longest video I've seen on YouTube. * Microsoft Learn - GitHub Foundations Learning Path * LinkedIn Learning - Practice Exam 1 for GitHub Foundations Certification Practice Exam 2 for GitHub Foundations Certification Practice Exam 3 for GitHub Foundations Certification Practice Exam 4 for GitHub Foundations Certification *  GitHub Skills   The 300 odd questions in the Microsoft Learn quizzes & the LinkedIn Practice Exams come with answers and reasoning explanations like these - Despite the accusatory name, git blame is just a command to display commit history. Secret gists are not fully private; they are unlisted but accessible to anyone with the link.  The actu...
Read more