Chorus effect Updated 2025-07-16
Atomic and laser Physics subdepartment of the University of Oxford Updated 2025-07-16
Knol Updated 2025-07-16
Very similar to OurBigBook.com!
People who worked on it:
- Udi Manber: project lead
- www.wired.com/2008/07/google-knol/ mentions various engineers. The original page had photos, including the full team photo, but these died, but are visible on the archive: web.archive.org/web/20151220002650/http://www.wired.com/2008/07/google-knol/.
- Ben McMahan: "Developed, launched, and maintained Knol", mentioned at:
- x.com/benjmcmahan
- www.benjaminmcmahan.com/ has email
ben.j.mcmahan@gmail.com
- Michael McNally (2007-2009), "project's technical lead": mentioned at: www.wired.com/2008/07/google-knol/,
- github.com/xiangtiandai Xiangtian Dai
xiangtian.dai@google.com - Mohsin Ahmed: can't find any online profiles
Replying to a listener phone-in question WNYC radio, mediated by Brian Lehrer.
It was about to launch it seems, and it was not clear at the time that anyone could write content, as opposed to only selected people.
It was about to launch it seems, and it was not clear at the time that anyone could write content, as opposed to only selected people.
Jimmy then corrects that misinformation. He then clearly states that since there can be multiple versions of each article, including opinion pieces, like OurBigBook.com, Knol would be very different to Wikipedia, more like blogging than encyclopedia.
Google Knol: the future of academic journals? by Doug Belshaw (2010)
Source. Bibliography:
- Wikipedia & Knol: Why Knol Already Failed by gwern.net (2009). So there was some kind of monetary payment on the site. Interesting and sad.
Lab vs cyclotron X-ray crystallography Updated 2025-07-16
cyclotrons produce the better images, but they are expensive/you have to move to them and order a timeslot.
Lab-based just use some X-ray source from the lab, so it is much move convenient e.g. for a pharmaceutical company doing a bunch of images. The Wikipedia image shows such a self-contained lab system: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Freezed_XRD.jpg
Atomic clock Updated 2025-07-16
How an atomic clock works, and its use in the global positioning system (GPS) by EngineerGuy (2012)
Source. Shows how conceptually an atomic clock is based on a feedback loop of two hyperfine structure states of caesium atoms (non-radioactive caesium-133 as clarified by the Wikipedia page). Like a quartz clock, it also relies on the piezoelectricity of quartz, but unlike the quartz clock, the quartz is not shaped like a tuning fork, and has a much larger resonating frequency of about 7 MHz. The feedback is completed by producing photons that resonate at the right frequency to excite the caesium.Inside the HP 5061A Cesium Clock by CuriousMarc (2020)
Source. A similar model was used in the Hafele-Keating experiment to test special relativity on two planes flying in opposite directions. Miniaturization was key.
Contains a disposable tube with 6g of Caesium. You boil it, so when it runs out, you change the tube, 40k USD. Their tube is made by Agilent Technologies, so a replacement since that opened in 1999, and the original machine is from the 60s.
Detection is done with an electron multiplier.
youtu.be/eOti3kKWX-c?t=1166 They compare it with their 100 dollar GPS disciplined oscillator, since GPS satellites have atomic clocks in them.
Quick presentation of the atomic clock at the National Physical Laboratory (2010)
Source. Their super accurate setup first does laser cooling on the caesium atoms. Atomic orbital Updated 2025-07-16
In the case of the Schrödinger equation solution for the hydrogen atom, each orbital is one eigenvector of the solution.
Remember from time-independent Schrödinger equation that the final solution is just the weighted sum of the eigenvector decomposition of the initial state, analogously to solving partial differential equations with the Fourier series.
This is the table that you should have in mind to visualize them: en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Atomic_orbital&oldid=1022865014#Orbitals_table
Audio editor Updated 2025-07-16
Aum Shinrikyo Updated 2025-07-16
Australia Updated 2025-07-16
Authentic learning Updated 2025-07-16
Author Updated 2025-07-16
Autothrophs and heterothrophs Updated 2025-07-16
Average length of a Snakes and Ladders game Updated 2025-07-16
Since Snakes and Ladders is nothing but a Absorbing Markov chain, the results are exactly the same as for that general problem.
www.jstor.org/stable/3619261: How Long Is a Game of Snakes and Ladders? by Althoen, King and Schilling (1993), paywalled.
AWS service Updated 2025-07-16
Axiom Updated 2025-07-16
B2 Oxford physics course Updated 2025-07-16
www-thphys.physics.ox.ac.uk/people/AndreiStarinets/sr_mt_2022.html (archive) contains 2022 problem sets and notes, well done Mr Andrei Starinets!
B4 Oxford physics course Updated 2025-07-16
www-pnp.physics.ox.ac.uk/~barra/teaching.shtml As of 2023, contains some good 2015 materials: web.archive.org/web/20220525094139/http://www-pnp.physics.ox.ac.uk/~barra/teaching.shtml It was called "Subatomic physics" back then.
2015 professor: Alan J. Barr.
Possible 2022 professor: Guy Wilkinson (unconfirmed): www.chch.ox.ac.uk/staff/professor-guy-wilkinson
Backpropagation Updated 2025-07-16
BackRub Updated 2025-07-16
This was the original name of Google Search.
One wonders if this name has some influence from the LGBT culture in San Francisco! The sexual innuendo is palpable.
"Back" is of course a reference to "backlinks", since Google Search relies on incoming links (AKA backlinks) to a webpage to determine its importance.
Backward design Updated 2025-07-16
Steve Jobs has a great quote about this. He's totally right on this one!
You've got to start with the customer experience and work backwards to the technology. You can't start with the technology and try to figure out where you're going to sell it.
Steve Jobs Insult Response excerpt from the 1997 WWDC
. Source. TODO understand the context of the question a bit better. It is something to do with an OpenDoc thing and Java.Decide your goal first, and then do whatever is needed to how to reach it.
Don't start randomly learning tech, because that means you will waste a lot of time learning useless stuff.
There is of course some level chicken-and-egg paradox in this, as highlighted by Dilbert, since choosing an achievable goal in the first place requires some level of technical understanding.
However, it is much more common that people will get way too involved in learning useless stuff and lose sight of the useful end goals.
Rather, take an iterative approach:
There is some truth to the counter argument that "but if you don't spend a lot of time learning the basics, you can never find solutions".
However, these people underestimate your brain. The brain is beautiful, and human intuition is capable of generating interest towards the things that are actually useful to reach your goal. When you feel like learning something related to your goal, by all means, give yourself the time to do so. But this still be much more efficient than just learning random things that other people tell you to learn.
Bibliography:
- Ciro Santilli and many many others believe that backward design is a fundamental principle that should be considered by the educational system rather than wasting 90% of everyone's time with the 90% of mandatory curricula they don't care about:
- notably that school should be personalized and project driven:
- www.cartalk.com/content/rant-and-rave-36 "The New Theory of Learning" by Thomas L. Magliozzi section "Premise III: THE BACKWARDS LEARNING THEORY" says the exact same thing. Ciro actually found this when writing Cool data embedded in the Bitcoin blockchain.
- several well known teaching methods:
- a Coding Horror software specific take on this issue: blog.codinghorror.com/please-dont-learn-to-code/
- x.com/7etsuo/status/1784787045157900697: George Hotz
Everyone I've met who can program well learned it the same way: they had an idea, and then they built it.
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