Since Seattle rarely sees snow the city gets quite shut down when it does happen. We have a few inches on the ground today, so despite the beautiful sun, UW has suspended operations. Fine for me, I like the change of scenery. Somehow, these snowy days have got me watching a lot of online videos. First of all, a movie recommendation: In the loop, a political satire, which is the genre that Jessi and I agree on the most.
But for those of you looking for a shorter diversion and/or something healthyalgorithms related, I call your attention first to Google Refine Screencasts and second to a list of the 20 must-see CS TED talks from the mastersincomputerscience blog.
On the 20 must-see list, Torsten Reil’s talk caught my eye. He has built these human models with really lifelike kinetics using serious physics and biology, and then has 15 minutes of his talk devoted to showing what happens when he pushes them around. My caricature of a hard-AI researcher is a mad scientist building a sentient computer to be their only friend, so the way Reil has created these lifelike virtual people just to beat the up and make fun of their dance moves, that exceeds my expectations.
Healthy Algorithms 