Memristors

While listening to This Week In Tech (TWIT, you'll get the paradox by reading below) I listened to an interesting discussion on an idea that could make artificial intelligence and useful robots a reality. Imagine computers that could become sociopathic! We could replace all the CEO's out there and save billions in salaries and bonuses alone. Anyway read on for my version of the story . .

In 1869 Dmitri Mendeleev noticed four gaps in the periodic table. They turned out to be the undiscovered elements scandium, gallium, technetium and germanium.

In 1971, Leon Chua an electronics engineer was fascinated by the fact that electronics had no rigorous mathematical foundation.

There are (apparently) four basic quantities that define an electronic circuit, electric charge, the change in that charge over time (current), magnetic fields (magnetic flux or the field's strength) and that magnetic flux variability over time (voltage). Four interconnected things, mathematics says, can be related in six ways. Chua found something missing, a fourth basic circuit element besides the standard trio of resistor, capacitor and inductor. Chua dubbed it the "memristor". The only problem was that as far as Chua or anyone else could see, memristors did not actually exist.

So charge and current, and magnetic flux and voltage, are connected through their definitions. That's two. Three more associations correspond to the three traditional circuit elements. A resistor is any device that, when you pass current through it, creates a voltage. For a given voltage a capacitor will store a certain amount of charge. Pass a current through an inductor, and you create a magnetic flux. That makes five. Something is missing?

This missing 'something' Chua calculated, was the memristor that would behave like a resistor but could "remember" what current had flowed through it before. Memristors may be able to mimic how the brain's neurons interact. The best previous hope for creating an artificial brain, neural networks are simply software running on standard computing hardware. What Chua was aiming for is actually a change in architecture. Read more . . ? See the original article in New Scientist where you can read for yourself. Enjoy.

Thai at the Rocks

Sailors Thai is one of Sydney's most delicious and authentic Thai restaurants.

A few cold Singha beers prepared us for a great lunch.

Thai food here is served in a style of authenticity with Thai herbs and spices that give complexity of flavours in the Thai tradition. Just enough heat in the chillies to lift all the dishes.

Sailors Thai is in George Street, The Rocks in Sydney is a classic 1864 Romanesque Revival style building. We had lunch in the relaxed, shared Canteen upstairs, featuring a long, gleaming zinc communal table.

Magnificently spicy and fragrant combinations made this meal a true Thai experience. 5 Stars *****

The Rocks weekend market every Friday, Saturday and Sunday where you can follow the cobblestone laneways where stalls offer a full range of unique and handmade products.

Interesting stalls with a wide range of 'stuff' and something different around each corner . . .

We also found the Hunter Valley is showcased at The Rocks Markets every Friday and Saturday.

Great Free entertainment as well, perfect to sip coffee and watch the world go by ;-}

Lazy Saturday Pictures

Saturday I was walking Hermione in a park we were exploring and taking some snaps with the new Nikkor 70-200mm lens and testing the performance of it and getting interesting depth of field effects at f2.8 in full sun (see below).

The shot below of a crested pigeon taken at 1000th sec @ f2.8 ISO 200 focusing at the full 200mm and hand held.

This one below is about a 50% crop

And below again is a closer look. This is at the 200mm end and is not its sharpest point I'd say that would be about f5.6 or so and maybe 120mm? Amazing quality from a real precision built piece of equipment. Its built like a weatherproofed tank, I love this lense already. I just hope Andrea can afford it :-)

Earlier in the day Hermione was lying in the sun on the bed in the spare bedroom and getting some patting attention. Taken with Tokina 11-16mm wide angle 125th of a second at f2.8 ISO 200 and 12mm

Warm sunny day in Sydney . . .

Sunny warm winters day on the bed . . .

I just got a new lens for my D300 :-)

The AF-S VR Zoom-Nikkor ED 70-200mm f/2.8

This is the standard lens for news, sports and action and environment portrait shooters. It's light weight mechanically and optically precision built and the 70-200mm VR shines for fast action in low light. Its rated as one of Nikon's sharpest lenses ever and its sharp at every aperture. It is famous for its beautiful bokeh (that gorgeous out of focus background look) The 2.8 aperture makes this a 'fast' lens.

I also have:

Nikkor 105mm f/2.8G ED IF AF-S VR

Macro lens for insects, food and tiny stuff. Also one of the best portrait lenses you can get. Again beautiful bokeh.

AF-S Zoom-Nikkor ED 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G IF DX VR

Good optics and considering the low price and the long focal range, very good all rounder in performance.

Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 AT-X

The wide angle lens if you're on a budget and the the sharpest ultra wide lens for a DX Nikon camera. It's rated better than the more expensive Nikkor 12-24mm.

Great for landscapes, architecture and anything inside or close range and low light.

Why 2.8 ?

The maximum aperture of the lens can have a significant impact on the types of photos you can take.

Smaller Aperture number (2.8) = Wider Aperture (the hole) = More Light

Larger Aperture number (22) = Narrower Aperture (smaller hole) = Less Light

If you want to take photos indoors without a flash, on overcast days, for sport or anything you need to use fast shutter speeds to freeze motion you need a fast lens (2.8 or better)

You can also get a shallower Depth of Field (DOF) DOF is that amount of your shot that will be in focus. With a large aperture you get a large depth of field, that is most of your image will be in focus whether it’s close to your camera or far away. With a small aperture you get a small (or shallow) depth of field and only part of the image will be in focus and the rest will be fuzzy (bokeh) but this separates the subject from the background (as long as IT is in sharp focus) and give a 3D effect to images and smoothes out busy backgrounds. - see RedBubble Flickr

Cold Morning Photo Expedition

City lights in the early morning from Yurulbin Point in Birchgrove.

Birchgrove is a suburb in the inner west of Sydney, just 5 kilometres from the Sydney CBD on the Balmain peninsula, overlooking Sydney Harbour.

I had left home early to try to get a sunrise behind the Sydney Harbour Bridge there, but the sky was cloudy and washed out, so I went to Sydney's Luna Park to see if there were any image possibilities there.

Luna Park was open but deserted at 7:00 am on a cold Saturday morning.

Some colour isolation experiments.

Urban renewal or prestige wasteland?

Urban renewal refers to efforts to revitalise aging and decaying inner cities including its demolition, clearance, and general rehabilitation. Jackson's Landing is the name of a residential and commercial property development located on the northern peninsula of Pyrmont, an inner Sydney suburb.

The area played a pivotal role in Sydney life in the 19th century as a shipping port, sandstone quarry, sugar refinery, slaughter house, iron works, rail interchange and industrial hub, and at its peak was home to 30,000. From 1853 to 1931 the cliffs of Pyrmont were quarried for ‘Sydney Yellowblock’, the world’s finest sandstone. ‘Hell Hole’, ‘Paradise’ and ‘Purgatory’ were the nicknames given by stonemasons to three of the quarries.Government House, Sydney Town Hall, Sydney University, Sydney Hospital and the QVB are some of the 19th Century public buildings constructed of sandstone from Pyrmont. But by the early 1990s residents had dwindled to 3,000, most industry had relocated and the area had become an eyesore.

Today it is a highly compressed mish mash of modern apartments set in an urban village style with shops, restaurants, cafes, library and a cultural centre. I have been down there several times at different times of the day and the thing that strikes you as you walk around, is the lack of any people. It seems almost deserted at most times although there are thousands of apartments just overhead.

Some relics from the past with some apartment blocks in the background.

More relics

Where are all the people, Jacksons Landing 11:30am Sunday. . .