DPL Reading List – April 19, 2019
Here are some of the new and interesting articles we found this week.
Helvetica, the World’s Most Popular Font, Gets a Facelift – “Now, Monotype has given Helvetica a facelift, in the hopes that it can restore some of the magic to the iconic typeface. The new version, Helvetica Now, updates each of Helvetica’s 40,000 characters to reflect the demands of the 21st century. It’s designed to be more legible in miniature, like on the tiny screen of an Apple Watch, and hold its own in large-scale applications like gigantic billboards.”
Untold History of AI: Algorithmic Bias Was Born in the 1980s – “While machine bias is fast becoming one of the most discussed topics in AI, algorithms are still often perceived as inscrutable and unquestionable objects of mathematics that produce rational, unbiased outcomes. As AI critic Kate Crawford says, it’s time to recognize that algorithms are a “creation of human design” that inherit our biases. The cultural myth of the unquestionable algorithm often works to conceal this fact: Our AI is only as good as we are.”
Polarizing the Data Center: Spin Lasers Deliver 240 Gigabits Per Second – “By the researchers’ calculations, the polarization-based data transfer method can hit 240 gigabits per second but still generate only about 7 percent as much heat as a traditional connection running at 25 gigabits per second.”
How Do I Stop Forgetting What I Learned So Quickly? – “Instead of taking notes or rephrasing the author’s words into your own words, ask yourself questions that would help you practice recalling information. At the end of each chapter, you can ask yourself a question that would summarize the main idea or important concepts that you want to remember.”
Why Farmers Are Turning to AI to Boost Yields – “Farmers face a gargantuan task: trying to feed a world of 7 billion, which will swell to 9 or 10 billion by midcentury. At the same time, due to factors like deforestation, transportation, chemical reliance, and methane generation, agriculture is a major contributor to climate change. This raises the question: Can agtech help farmers be more productive while also righting conventional agriculture’s wrongs, such as heavy dependence on chemicals, soil depletion, water overuse, and contamination?”
5 Steps To Effectively Prepare For A Highly Productive Day – “Preparing for a highly productive day doesn’t have to take much time either. I’ve personally experienced that anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes is enough to save yourself a ton of time, energy and frustration the very next day.”
Why We Should Build Software Like We Build Houses – “Architects draw detailed plans before a brick is laid or a nail is hammered. Programmers and software engineers don’t. Can this be why houses seldom collapse and programs often crash?”
