"Using total variation based energy minimisation we address the recovery of a blurred (convoluted) one dimensional (1D) barcode. We consider functionals defined over all possible barcodes with fidelity to a convoluted signal of a barcode, and regularised by total variation. Our fidelity terms consist of the L^2 distance either directly to the measured signal or preceded by deconvolution. Key length scales and parameters are the X-dimension of the underlying barcode, the size of the supports of the convolution and deconvolution kernels, and the fidelity parameter. For all functionals, we establish regimes (sufficient conditions) wherein the underlying barcode is the unique minimiser. We also present some numerical experiments suggesting that these sufficient conditions are not optimal and the energy methods are quite robust for significant blurring."

"The YouTube Nonprofit Program provides for extra benefits like branding capabilities, increased uploading capacity, and call-to-action overlays. Non-profits can use the call-to-action feature to drive sign-ups, donations, website traffic, and any other response in which users take action. This feature was effectively used by the World Food Programme to raise $36,000 on World Food Day with this video.…"

"Oftentimes, you'll want to fit a line to a bunch of data points to make it easier to spot patterns or relationships. It might be observations over time or it might be two variables that are possibly related. In either case, a scatter plot just might not be enough to see anything useful. This tutorial will show you how to graph a fitted line, or loess curve, to such a scatter plot."

"The study of high-dimensional differential equations is challenging and difficult due to the analytical and computational intractability. Here, we significantly improve the speed of waveform relaxation (WR), a method to simulate high-dimensional differential-algebraic equations. This new method termed adaptive waveform relaxation (AWR) is tested on a communication network example. Further we analyze different heuristics for computing graph partitions tailored to adaptive waveform relaxation."

"In a nine-month study, four fictitious companies invented by the accountability office also sought EnergyStar status for some conventional devices like dehumidifiers and heat pump models that existed only on paper. The fake companies submitted data indicating that the models consumed 20 percent less energy than even the most efficient ones on the market. Yet those applications were mostly approved without a challenge or even questions, the report said."

"Copyright for Librarians is a joint project of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society and Electronic Information for Libraries (eIFL), a consortium of libraries from 50 countries in Africa, Asia and Europe. The goal of the project is to provide librarians in developing and transitional countries information concerning copyright law. More specifically, it aspires to inform librarians concerning:
copyright law in general
the aspects of copyright law that most affect libraries
how librarians in the future could most effectively participate in the processes by which copyright law is interpreted and shaped."

"Go there, read it, and understand why (just like newspaper reporting and books) web content costs money and must be paid for or subsidized. Either that or it must serve some secondary benefit that brings in the bucks: for instance, a free web design blog might lead to paying web design gigs for its author, or so they say.

Then read Part Two: Paying For It, where Kissane considers each of these methods of subsidizing content “and how they relate to our work as content and editorial strategists.”"

"The requirements for building R vary, depending whether the build machine is an Intel-based or PowerPC-based Mac and whether universal build is desired. The following description shows the minimum requirements for building R.…"

"But if anybody starts telling you now how much they’ve beaten the S&P 500 by over the past 10 years, then before investing with them it’s definitely worth asking to see their marketing materials in the intervening years. It’s pretty important that they always used the S&P 500, and not just when it made them look good. Otherwise, Richard Ferri is right that the comparison is downright misleading, and not the kind of behavior one would expect from a fiduciary."

"The recent happiness literature suggests that interpersonal utility comparisons are to some extent possible. Yet this does not undermine the basic philosophical criticism of utilitarianism (or, more generally, of subjective welfarism). A focus on subjective utility may lead to a relative neglect of the real conditions of life. Moreover, valuing a life is a reáective activity that should not be reduced to the evaluation of hedonic states. In fact, the psychological literature has also argued that ìutilityîis a multidimensional phenomenon and that it is crucial to distinguish a§ects and cognition. Therefore it appears unlikely that we should witness a revival of primitive utilitarianism in the near future. At the same time, however, the empirical work on happiness has drawn attention to the importance of the non-material dimensions of life ó a welcome shift away from the exclusive focus on material consumption."

"The challenges are still significant. The first is proving that the technology is ready for the punishment of the open water, where many wave and tidal prototypes have met their match. For example, the fiberglass rotors on early tidal turbine prototypes installed in New York City's East River in 2007 were fractured by unexpected turbulence. The following year, Pelamis Wave Power pulled its snake-like 750-kilowatt generators out of Portuguese waters amid technical difficulties."

"Created by Cristóbal Vila, this video manages to explain how everything, from snails to flowers, is built according to predictable mathematical principles. Numbers have never been more sublime."

"The goals of this challenge are to (1) learn the relative strengths and weaknesses of the different classification algorithms, (2) use the results to improve classification algorithms, and (3) understand what spectroscopically confirmed sub-sets are needed to properly train these algorithms. The challenge is available at www.hep.anl.gov/SNchallenge, and the due date for classifications is May 1, 2010."

"The "Breakable Actor" class is a convenience feature that allows you to spawn particle effects when an object gets destroyed without setting up complex kismet sequences."

"…We can also consider what happens when instead of only considering a single type of shuffling we consider combining the j! different shuffling rules that come from all the possible rearrangements of the ordering of the labels. And of course, perhaps the most important thing missing right now is a good magic trick that can be performed using this shuffling rule, which was the original motivation of Larry Carter and J.-C. Reyes who first suggested this problem!"

"…In addition, we demonstrate a novel transport mechanism whereby we convey cold atoms confined in arrays of videotape magnetic micro-traps over distances as large as ~ 1 cm parallel to the chip surface. This conveying mechanism enables us to survey the surface of the chip and observe potential-roughness effects across different regions."

"…Finally, an answer to that vexing middle step in the business plan. 1. Start Neato Company. 2. ??? Move to Portland. 3. PROFIT."

""David Leung in sailor suit, 1911." Platinum print by Fred Holland Day. Another look at the work of this somewhat eccentric photographer."

"Well, here we are the next day with NO internet. I could not get an IP address AT ALL on our Linksys router. So, I tried another Linksys that I had sitting around. AGAIN, no IP address AT ALL. Charter told us that since the modem works when plugged directly into the machine that our routers must be bad and we needed to rent one from them. Again, we told them no. I suspected that they might have blocked the spectrum of Linksys MAC addresses, so I cloned my PC's MAC address to the Linksys and it INSTANTLY connected. Our bad, out of date, incompatible Linksys router suddenly is getting the 20mbps speeds that our PC's were getting."

"People who say they like living in the suburbs are not expecting to pay a lot of what it really costs to do it. Furthermore, a lot of them are having second thoughts: the fastest-growing demographic in Manhattan is now children: people who can afford to live anywhere they want are increasingly deciding that a real city is the best place to raise a family.…"

"Yves here. The end game of lending too much money is creditor losses. The better path is to accept writedowns and restructurings, for the lenders to take their lumps. The record of past financial crises is clear on this matter. Even though it leads a larger initial economic downturn, its duration is comparatively short. Even though US policymakers refuse to listen, the Japanese are strongly of the view that their prolonged slump is mainly the result of the failure to write down bad loans and recapitalize its banks, rather than insufficient fiscal and monetary stimulus. And a deflationary spiral produces the same result, creditor losses, in this case via default, with more damage to the economy and higher costs of repairing the financial system."

"Viacom's efforts to disguise its promotional use of YouTube worked so well that even its own employees could not keep track of everything it was posting or leaving up on the site. As a result, on countless occasions Viacom demanded the removal of clips that it had uploaded to YouTube, only to return later to sheepishly ask for their reinstatement. In fact, some of the very clips that Viacom is suing us over were actually uploaded by Viacom itself."

"Yowza! Somewhere in 2004, the world changed, and we didn’t realize it. Employers in the private sector put a lid on the cost of benefits (which includes healthcare, retirement, vacation, and supplemental pay of all sorts). Meanwhile the cost of benefits in state and local govt jobs just kept rising, with barely any break, both before and after the financial bust. This is not good."