Parallelism, Raspberry Pi, and Jetson Nano at IndyCode()

Exciting things are happening in the world of parallel programming. The organizers of IndyCode() invited me to share some updates with their audience this year. Thank you Ken Versaw, Lois Versaw, and the entire team of organizers for having me on stage.

Nvidia GPU Technology Conference 2019

What do people do when they have a terabyte of data coming in every day? They ignore it, because they know there’s another terabyte coming in tomorrow. Pretty soon, they’ll be infinitely behind!
~Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia

The best humor contains a kernel of truth. Jensen Huang shared the above observation during his keynote at Nvidia’s GPU Technology Conference last week in San Jose, CA. The 9,000-person audience laughed knowingly!

Every industry has been hit by a tsunami of data, a tsunami offering advantages and challenges. Advantage: The volume of data means we can quantify our work and our decisions like never before. The challenge: Turning data into actionable information takes work. GTC 2019 was a gathering for people exploring ways to meet the challenge. This article offers a summary of the event.

AI Superpowers by Kai-Fu Lee

Deep learning will eliminate many jobs that were once considered safe from automation. White collar, blue collar… every profession will feel the impact before the year 2039.

Machines powered by artificial intelligence have excelled at games for decades. IBM’s Deep Blue defeated chess champion Garry Kasparov in 1996. Alphabet’s AlphaGo defeated world champion Go player, Ke Jie, in 2017.

Game-focused AI is highly specialized and mostly ineffective in in other areas. What about general purpose AI, software that can mimic human intelligence and make human-like decisions? What about applications beyond games?

Dr. Kai-Fu Lee examines these questions in his book, AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order. Lee draws on his background as a pioneering AI researcher and successful entrepreneur to explain why certain subsets of AI produce results, and how readers of the book might benefit.

Quantum Computing at Caltech

If you think you understand quantum mechanics, then you don’t understand quantum mechanics.

~Prof Richard Feynman, Caltech

The Caltech Entrepreneurs Forum offers a blend of tech + business on Saturday mornings, roughly once per month. The February 2019 session featured quantum computing enthusiasts from a variety of disciplines:

• Quantum Physicist: Prof Maria Spiropulu of Caltech
• Corporate Research Scientist: Joe Latone of IBM
• Venture Capitalist: Yipeng Zhao of Embark Ventures
• Entrepreneur: Alireza Shabani of Qulab
• M&A Specialist: Andy Tomat of Four Pillars

Purpose of the gathering: To wrestle with questions in the field of quantum computing.

MacBooks, Lasers, Art, & Science

Nerdy tattoos. That’s how one person described the laser-engraved symbols on my MacBook. Stickers are fine, but sometimes you want to try something new. Besides, lasers are cool!

If you would like to laser-engrave your laptop, here’s a procedure that works. There’s also a brief description for each of the symbols engraved on this particular MacBook.