One of the premier Engineering institute of West Bengal is Calcutta Institute of Engineering and Management at Tollygunge in Kolkata. Its offers quite a few Engineering Courses in different Streams. Currently applications for admissions in B.Tech Courses is on. Please refer below for more details.
Btech Admissions is open in Calcutta Institute of Engineeering and Management for the year 2011-12. Applications are invited from eligible candidates.
The college started in the year 2003. There are six streams in B.Tech. The six streams in B.Tech are Civil Engineering, Electrical Engineering , Electronics and Communication Engineering, Instrumentation and Control Engineering, Computer Science & Engineering, Information Technology. The courses are approved by All India Council for Technical Education(AICTE) and the same are affiliated to West Bengal University of Technology (WBUT).
Selection Procedure: As per guidelines given by AICTE and the State Government.


The West Papua National Coalition for Liberation has announced the establishment of the West Papua Decolonization Committee.
The coalition says the Committee will petition the United Nations Decolonization Committee for the re-inscription of West Papua in order for it to be granted the due process of decolonization.
Membership of the Committee will consist of the coalition's leaders and dignitaries of Vanuatu including former Presidents and Prime Ministers.
Membership would be open to people with relevant expertise from other countries.
The coalition's Vice Chairman, John Ondawame, says the establishment of the Committee is their response to the ongoing violence committed by Indonesian forces in Papua.
Dr. Ondawame says the violence has continued despite years of pleas by Papuans for peaceful dialogue. He has called upon the people of the Pacific and the International community to support the diplomatic effort.


text:
Anna Ross's chapbook, Hawk Weather, won the New Women's Voices Prize from Finishing Line Press and the Jean Pedrick Chapbook Award from the New England Poetry Club. She has received fellowships from the Sewanee Writers' Conference, Grub Street, Inc., Fishtrap, and the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and her work has twice been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Her poetry and criticism has appeared in journals such as The Paris Review, The New Republic,Southwest Review, Salamander, Barrow Street, and Boston Review. She teaches at Stonehill College, where she is Poet in Residence, and is a contributing editor in poetry for Guernica: A Magazine of Art & Politics.
If a Storm by Anna Ross

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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text:
'''Generate training set and test set files from (user, item) pairs'''
from __future__ import print_function
import sys
import random
import argparse
import itertools

def pair_comp(x, y):
	if x[0] == y[0]:
		return x[1] - y[1]
	else:
		return x[0] - y[0]

def write_comps(f, user_id, left_items, n_items, n_comps):
  right_items = [e for e in xrange(n_items) if e not in left_items]

  n_left = len(left_items)
  n_right = len(right_items)

  if not n_left or not n_right:
	  return

  comps_list = []
  _random, _int = random.random, int
  for i in xrange(int(n_comps)):
    li = _int(_random() * n_left)
    ri = _int(_random() * n_right)
    comps_list.append((left_items[li], right_items[ri]))

  comps_list.sort(cmp = pair_comp)

  for (l, r) in comps_list:
    print(user_id, l, r, file=f)

def bin2comp(filename, output, f_train, f_test, n_comps):
  n_users = 0
  n_items = 0

  pairs_list = []
  f = open(filename, 'r')
  for line in f:
    tokens = line.strip().split()
    user_id = tokens[0]
    item_id = tokens[1]
    pairs_list.append((int(user_id), int(item_id)))
    n_users = max(n_users, int(user_id))
    n_items = max(n_items, int(item_id))
  f.close()

  print("Dataset for {0} users, {1} items loaded.".format(n_users, n_items))

  random.shuffle(pairs_list)

  n_train = int(float(len(pairs_list)) * f_train)
  train_pairs = pairs_list[:n_train]
  train_pairs.sort(cmp=pair_comp)

  n_test  = min(int(float(len(pairs_list)) * f_test), len(pairs_list)-n_train)
  test_pairs = pairs_list[n_train:(n_train+n_test)]
  test_pairs.sort(cmp=pair_comp)

  g1 = open(output+'_train.dat', 'w')
  idx = 0
  for u in xrange(1, n_users+1):
    left_items = []

    while train_pairs[idx][0] == u:
      left_items.append(train_pairs[idx][1])
      idx = idx + 1
      if idx == len(train_pairs):
        break

    if len(left_items) > 0 and len(left_items) < n_items:
      write_comps(g1, u, left_items, n_items, n_comps)
  g1.close()

  g2 = open(output+'_train_bin.dat','w')
  for uid, iid in train_pairs:
    print(uid, iid, file=g2)
  g2.close()

  g3 = open(output+'_test.dat','w')
  for uid, iid in test_pairs:
    print(uid, iid, file=g3)
  g3.close()

if __name__ == "__main__":
  parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
  parser.add_argument('input_file',
                      help="Dataset with user-item-rating triples")
  parser.add_argument('-o', '--output_file', action='store', dest='output',
                      default="", help="Prefix for the output files")
  parser.add_argument('-n', '--train_frac', action='store', dest='f_train', type=float,
                      default=.9, help="Fraction of dataset for training (Default .9)")
  parser.add_argument('-t', '--test_frac', action='store', dest='f_test', type=float,
                      default=.1, help="Fraction of dataset for test (Default .1)")
  parser.add_argument('-c', '--n_comps', action='store', type=int,
                      default=1000, help="Number of comparisons per user (Default 1000)")
  args = parser.parse_args()

  if (args.f_train + args.f_test > 1):
    raise Exception("F_TRAIN + F_TEST exceeds one!")

  if args.output == "":
    args.output = os.path.splitext(os.path.basename(args.input_file))[0]

  bin2comp(args.input_file, args.output, args.f_train, args.f_test, args.n_comps)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Constantin Belinsky, né le  à Bratslav (Ukraine) et mort le  à Paris , est un affichiste, peintre et sculpteur français d'origine ukrainienne.

Carrière
Constantin Belinsky étudie la peinture et la sculpture à l'école des beaux-arts de Kishinev. Il s'installe en 1925 à Paris et dessine en 1930 ses premières affiches pour le cinéma. Parallèlement à son activité d'affichiste il  sculpte des nus féminins et pratique la peinture.

Dans son abondante production d'affiches aux compositions structurées, expressives et aux coloris vifs, on peut citer parmi les plus représentatives celles des distributions françaises des films La Fiancée de Frankenstein de James Whale ou Le ciel est à vous de Jean Grémillon.

Affiches
 1932 : Scarface, de Howard Hawks
 1935 : La Fiancée de Frankenstein, de James Whale
 1944 : Le ciel est à vous, de Jean Grémillon
 1946 :
 Laura d'Otto Preminger
 Les Enchaînés d'Alfred Hitchcock
 1947 : La Dame de Shanghai,  d'Orson Welles
 1953 : Tant qu'il y aura des hommes de Fred Zinneman
 1956 : L'Enfer des hommes, de Jesse Hibbs
 1957 : L'homme qui rétrécit, de Jack Arnold
 1958 : La soif du mal, d'Orson Welles
 1965 : La Chatte au fouet, de Douglas Heyes
 1967 :
 Le Baptême du feu, de John Peyser
 Le Pirate du roi, de Don Weis
 Le Ranch de l'injustice, de Andrew V. McLaglen
 Tous les héros sont morts, de Joseph Sargent
 1968 :
 La Brigade des cow-boys, de William Hale
 La Jungle aux diamants, de Delbert Mann
 La Vallée du mystère, de Joseph Leytes
 Le Gang du dimanche, de Ron Winston
 Piège à San Francisco, de Joseph Leytes
 Un colt nommé Gannon'', de James Goldstone

Collections publiques
 Cinémathèque française

Notes et références

Liens externes

Affichiste de cinéma
Dessinateur français
Sculpteur ukrainien du XXe siècle
Sculpteur français du XXe siècle
Peintre ukrainien du XXe siècle
Peintre français du XXe siècle
Naissance en février 1904
Naissance dans l'oblast de Vinnytsia
Décès en avril 1999
Décès dans le 18e arrondissement de Paris
Décès à 95 ans

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Coats are great statement pieces. When it comes to fashion, I feel that nothing makes a statement quite like a beautiful coat. Now Y'all know that my personal style leans more toward "extra" (lol) so a statement coat for me has to be a.) long and b.) faux fur.
In my opinion, nobody rocks long fur coats better than Rihanna. I love her because she shares my same "extra" style taste and I've seen her in some of the most fabulous long faux fur coats.
This one from Roaman's comes in (4) colors!
Here's another long hooded coat from Nordstrom.
Over-sized coats are all the rage and Topshop has a great selection to choose from!
This black and white one is super luxurious!


CORRECTION (3:53pm): This is actually a reference to Rhonda Cox, an associate producer at Blizzard. We apologize for the error. She's OK with the comparison, though!
We already knew UFC fighter Ronda Rousey plays World of Warcraft sometimes (as a Night Elf Hunter), and the fact that the folks at Blizzard love easter eggs, so seeing a small in-game tribute to her is really no surprise.
But it's still pretty cool! Her in-game alter ego is a human Monk, called Rhonda, and she's hanging around the alpha build's Monk Class Hall. Can't miss her.
Blizzplanet's clip shows her exact location and features another in-game version of a famous WoW player: Mina Kunis a.k.a. Mila Kunis. This character was already in the game though, as a Garrison follower, she just moved to a new location in Legion.


text:
Delaware's Injury
And Medical Malpractice Leaders
Birth injuries leading to cerebral palsy infant result in suit
On behalf of Young Conaway Stargatt & Taylor, LLP | Apr 21, 2016 | birth injuries
Two doctors are facing serious consequences after an allegedly botched birth in 2013. Delaware residents may not be surprised to hear the family of a baby who was left with cerebral palsy as a result of birth injuries is suing for malpractice. The court case is currently in the midst of litigation.
The suit, which was filed in March 2016, says the parents of the baby in question were not fully informed about the risks of a vaginal birth after a previous cesarean section. On June 19, 2013, the mother was admitted to the hospital after her water broke. She alleges one of the doctors on call told her she was safe to proceed with a vaginal birth.
The suit goes on to say the doctors should have called for a cesarean delivery once it was proved the baby was in distress. Reportedly, her heartbeat dropped to some 50 beats per minute. Shortly thereafter, the mother's uterus ruptured, causing doctors to extricate the baby and reduce her temperature. The baby suffered oxygen deprivation, which the family is saying contributed to her diagnosis of cerebral palsy.
A diagnosis like cerebral palsy is a shattering blow to the parents of an infant, as many Delaware residents can understand. Considering that the birth injuries that led to this condition appear to have been the result of negligence on the part of the attending doctors, the family is well within its rights to file for medical malpractice. Seeking a legal solution to such a traumatic experience can be a game-changer for families who have suffered the effects of malpractice.
Source: injurylawyer-news.com, "Cooley Dickinson Hospital Sued Over Child's Cerebral Palsy", Dawn Snyder, April 13, 2016
birth injuries (63)
brain injuries (75)
Burn injury (1)
surgical errors (139)
The dangers of motorcycle accidents
Missed diagnosis is not the same as misdiagnosis
The danger of failing to diagnose a condition during pregnancy
Crashes caused holiday trauma despite Delaware safety campaign
Traumatic brain injuries can cause communication problems
Brain injuries could be life-changing, regardless of severity
Symptoms of hidden injury after a collision
Why it is vital to have medical evaluations after car accidents
Sleep deprived doctors report more medical errors
3 things to understand about medical malpractice in Delaware
Get The Legal Help You Need
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© 2021 Young Conaway Stargatt & Taylor, LLP. All Rights Reserved.


xenimus.com - View topic - Making Mobs scale to your level?
Making Mobs scale to your level?
Would making mobs scale to your level be a good thing? It would open up hunting zones, make hunting more diverse and also free up all the used spots.
you need to be level 15 before going into east, 20 for isle, etc to prevent anyone going anywhere.
Warriors can drop meds, trans, rage and vbs.
So you hunt the kind of monsters for the drop you're looking for.
Exp would be lower since the mobs would be your level but think about all the unused hunting spots that could be used again.
Bosses should have a fix level and end game content should also be higher level than the player.
Re: Making Mobs scale to your level?
Like this idea minus the exp being lower.
Some dungeons where the monsters get harder and harder with each spawn until you can't handle it anymore. With a drop chance increase as well, and obviously the exp would go up with it.
Then when the dungeon/area gets too hard players have to leave the area alone for a bit and let it cool off. Then go to one of the other areas and see how long you can last there.
+1 to both of these posts.
top for opinions on this post?


text:
/*jslint sloppy: true, nomen: true */
/*global require, define, console, XMLHttpRequest, requirejs, location */

define(['prim'], function (prim) {

    var file,
        currDirRegExp = /^\.(\/|$)/;

    function frontSlash(path) {
        return path.replace(/\\/g, '/');
    }

    function exists(path) {
        var status, xhr = new XMLHttpRequest();

        //Oh yeah, that is right SYNC IO. Behold its glory
        //and horrible blocking behavior.
        xhr.open('HEAD', path, false);
        xhr.send();
        status = xhr.status;

        return status === 200 || status === 304;
    }

    function mkDir(dir) {
        console.log('mkDir is no-op in browser');
    }

    function mkFullDir(dir) {
        console.log('mkFullDir is no-op in browser');
    }

    file = {
        backSlashRegExp: /\\/g,
        exclusionRegExp: /^\./,
        getLineSeparator: function () {
            return '/';
        },

        exists: function (fileName) {
            return exists(fileName);
        },

        parent: function (fileName) {
            var parts = fileName.split('/');
            parts.pop();
            return parts.join('/');
        },

        /**
         * Gets the absolute file path as a string, normalized
         * to using front slashes for path separators.
         * @param {String} fileName
         */
        absPath: function (fileName) {
            var dir;
            if (currDirRegExp.test(fileName)) {
                dir = frontSlash(location.href);
                if (dir.indexOf('/') !== -1) {
                    dir = dir.split('/');

                    //Pull off protocol and host, just want
                    //to allow paths (other build parts, like
                    //require._isSupportedBuildUrl do not support
                    //full URLs), but a full path from
                    //the root.
                    dir.splice(0, 3);

                    dir.pop();
                    dir = '/' + dir.join('/');
                }

                fileName = dir + fileName.substring(1);
            }

            return fileName;
        },

        normalize: function (fileName) {
            return fileName;
        },

        isFile: function (path) {
            return true;
        },

        isDirectory: function (path) {
            return false;
        },

        getFilteredFileList: function (startDir, regExpFilters, makeUnixPaths) {
            console.log('file.getFilteredFileList is no-op in browser');
        },

        copyDir: function (srcDir, destDir, regExpFilter, onlyCopyNew) {
            console.log('file.copyDir is no-op in browser');

        },

        copyFile: function (srcFileName, destFileName, onlyCopyNew) {
            console.log('file.copyFile is no-op in browser');
        },

        /**
         * Renames a file. May fail if "to" already exists or is on another drive.
         */
        renameFile: function (from, to) {
            console.log('file.renameFile is no-op in browser');
        },

        /**
         * Reads a *text* file.
         */
        readFile: function (path, encoding) {
            var xhr = new XMLHttpRequest();

            //Oh yeah, that is right SYNC IO. Behold its glory
            //and horrible blocking behavior.
            xhr.open('GET', path, false);
            xhr.send();

            return xhr.responseText;
        },

        readFileAsync: function (path, encoding) {
            var xhr = new XMLHttpRequest(),
                d = prim();

            xhr.open('GET', path, true);
            xhr.send();

            xhr.onreadystatechange = function () {
                if (xhr.readyState === 4) {
                    if (xhr.status > 400) {
                        d.reject(new Error('Status: ' + xhr.status + ': ' + xhr.statusText));
                    } else {
                        d.resolve(xhr.responseText);
                    }
                }
            };

            return d.promise;
        },

        saveUtf8File: function (fileName, fileContents) {
            //summary: saves a *text* file using UTF-8 encoding.
            file.saveFile(fileName, fileContents, "utf8");
        },

        saveFile: function (fileName, fileContents, encoding) {
            requirejs.browser.saveFile(fileName, fileContents, encoding);
        },

        deleteFile: function (fileName) {
            console.log('file.deleteFile is no-op in browser');
        },

        /**
         * Deletes any empty directories under the given directory.
         */
        deleteEmptyDirs: function (startDir) {
            console.log('file.deleteEmptyDirs is no-op in browser');
        }
    };

    return file;

});


text:
Lime Tree Observatory
Lime Tree Farm, Grewelthorpe, HG4 3DA
Located in the heart of the Nidderdale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, the Lime Tree Observatory benefits from a remote but accessible location under the darkest of skies.
Experienced astronomers run the facility with a fantastic ability to communicate the science of Astronomy to their guests.
As of September 2021, the observatory is not hosting regular open evenings. However, you can arrange private stargazing sessions at a very reasonable rate! Contact the observatory directly for more details.
A visit to this facility is one that everyone would enjoy, no matter their age or experience.
Lime Tree Observatory classroom
The classroom at Lime Tree Observatory is warm, welcoming and fun! It's an excellent place for families!
Location events organiser
Lime Tree Observatory organises events at this location
Please contact Lime Tree Observatory directly with any enquiries relating to visiting this location
Website: https://www.limetreeobservatory.com/
Twitter: @LimeTreeObsy
Facebook: Lime Tree Observatory
Weather forecast for Masham (2.5 miles away) updated 21/01/22 at 16:00.
Lime Tree Observatory is estimated to have light pollution levels similar to arural rural location based on data from the VIIRS satellite.
Light pollution map of Lime Tree Observatory
Dark for 5h 8m
Below is a list of events at Lime Tree Observatory. View these events on a calendar.
Guide to the heavens at Lime Tree Observatory
Sunday 20th February 2022 from 18:30pm to 20:30pm
Lime Tree Observatory, Grewelthorpe, HG4 3DA
Wednesday 23rd February 2022 from 18:30pm to 20:30pm
Wednesday 2nd March 2022 from 18:30pm to 20:30pm
The Bivouac – Nidderdale
High Knowle Farm, Upper Nidderdale, HG4 4JZ (2.8 miles away)
Firs Farm Bed & Breakfast
Healey, Ripon, HG4 4LH (3.3 miles away)
Little Seed Field Glamping
Castiles Farm, Ripon, HG4 3PU (3.4 miles away)
The Wensleydale Experience
Swinithwaite, Leyburn, DL8 4UH (13.3 miles away)
The Little Barn – Reeth
Hurst, Richmond, DL11 7NW (19.0 miles away)
Old Dairy B&B Swaledale
Low Row, Richmond, DL11 6PE (19.6 miles away)
fancy.shredding.chew
Stargazing in Nidderdale AONB
Stargazing in Yorkshire and The Humber
Lime Tree Observatory is in the constituency of Skipton and Ripon.
The local MP Julian Smith IS NOT A MEMBER of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Dark Skies.
If you are a constituent it takes just a moment to ask Julian Smith to join the APPG for Dark Skies and help introduce legislation to combat light pollution. Simply submit our pre-filled contact form. Thank you!


Cricket America - Home, Cricket it's fun you do.
If you would like help starting your own Junior Cricket Club or a Schools cricket program, it's inexpensive, easy to do & a lot of fun. Contact me, Edward Fox email and I will help you with setup, help you get access to discounted cricket equipment and get you going, as well as, be there to support you with answers to all your cricket & organizational related questions. There is no charge for my help via email or phone EVER !!!
Why is cricket relevant today?
Apart from the fact that it's fun , and American kids love it ?
*America's cultural communities value and appreciate cultural recognition.
* Public school boards, corporations and organizations support America's evolving demographics by embracing activities that are part of the history, heritage and identity of cultures around the world.
* Cricket is growing in popularity around the world, including in America. Youth cricket is the best way to capitalize on the trend.
* A formal school cricket program will mirror what is happening informally across America as youth play cricket whenever and wherever they can.
* Cricket supports learning outcomes beyond physical education: self-confidence, interpersonal skills, teamwork, integrity and fair play are encouraged and taught with an organized cricket program.
* Cricket is accessible to students regardless of social class, gender or ethnic background.
We Believe that Cricket can come easy to any American that wants to try .
With our superb background in sports of all kinds, Cricket has a lot of things that the average American sports follower looks for it their sport. Either recreationally or competitively. And also fill the needs of people that traditionally aren't big into sports. I'm not really a sports guy , but Cricket blows my mind . It's a passion .
It's great on so many levels.


text:
2 Rougier St: plans to convert to residential
Late 70s ad for Yorkshire General, with 2 Rougier St in background
Time to catch up on planning applications. Well, some of the more interesting ones. This particular one gives me a chance to include the groovy late 1970s advert above, from one of the old guides to York I picked up a few years back in the closing-down sale at the Barbican Bookshop. The happy-looking couple are in front of the Rougier Street office of Yorkshire General, as it was then. Now Aviva. Let's just call it 2 Rougier Street.
It's interesting that this is another of those 'office to residential' conversions. Perhaps all the city's large office blocks dating from the later 20th century will end up being converted to residential use. It's happened already with Hilary House (now Biba House) and the office block on Holgate Road, and may happen at Hudson House and Ryedale House, and others.
This is the link to the planning application documents, if you'd like to read more or make a comment.
The building in question looms large over Rougier Street, adding to the 'gloomy canyon' effect of that street. But retaining the buildings we've already got is usually preferable to knocking them down.
Observers of changes in the city will have noticed that everything built on the Hungate redevelopment site and in the nearby Walmgate area is similarly lofty and light-blocking. It's unlikely that knocking this building down would bring us anything better.
It looks okay, fifty years or so after it was built. At least where it faces the junction and the city walls. It has a nice clock on the corner. Would that be kept? Would it be kept and keep time, even? I don't know as I haven't had time to look at the planning application documents.
Some photos follow of the building from various angles taken at various times in the past ten years. And further information follows, in the links below.
View from the walls towards the Minster, 2005, including 2 Rougier St, next to the railway offices (now Cedar Court Grand)
View from the city walls near Lendal Bridge, looking towards the entrance to Rougier Street (2011)
Golden loveliness on the horizon, framed by the gloomy canyon of Rougier St. 2 Rougier St on the right (2012)
In 2009, the Press reported on York Civic Trust's verdict on City of York Council HQ options, one of which, at the time (2009) was the building above. (As we now know, West Offices was chosen.)
June 2015: Aviva looks to sell York office as part of £225 million savings bid
History of the Yorkshire Insurance Company (heritage.aviva.com)
The advertisement at the top of the page is from a late 1970s guide to York. It was printed — as so many local publications were — by a York firm whose name will be familiar to many.
Ben Johnson's, later Donnelleys, and now no more. The old Ben Johnson's, in York, is remembered in this rather nice letter in yesterday's Press: 'York was very fortunate indeed to have Ben Johnson's, the home of Europe's finest printer, in its city'.
Ryedale House: conversion to residential?
Tagged: offices
By Lisa @YorkStories • 12 January 2016 Buildings
Tagged offices
« A walk by the Ouse, and a rusty relic
'Improving Public Engagement' survey »
Yet the council are hell bent on shutting down railway maintenance companies on the teardrop because they say York is lacking in city centre office space, yet all you see on walkabouts in the city centre (and on many other sites in York) are empty office blocks!
Is it just part of an ongoing plan to eradicate York of blue collar engineering jobs? Do they just want low paid tourism/shop jobs and white collar office/call centre workers?
I understand that the council have told some of the companies that they want them off the teardrop by 2017 and that they will put in compulsory purchase orders to get things moving.


text:
Lack of Transportation Budget Delays Action on Bridges Project
The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet says the General Assembly's inaction on a transportation budget has put the Ohio River Bridges Project on hold.
The commonwealth is in charge of the downtown portion of the project, which includes a new bridge between Louisville and southern Indiana and a reworking of Spaghetti Junction. This week, the state Transportation Cabinet was supposed to choose three finalists from five firms that submitted bids for the project. The three finalists would then prepare more detailed plans, with the bid to be awarded this fall.
But now cabinet officials say they won't announce the finalists until the transportation budget passes.
"The three finalist companies are going to spend literally millions of dollars to prepare a very detailed, technical response to make their proposal, if you will," says cabinet spokesman Chuck Wolfe. "Before we would ask anybody to do that, we've got to have clear legislative authority."
The General Assembly has passed an unfunded road plan, but Wolfe says that doesn't grant the authority or funds to move the bridges project forward.
"No contractor would want to take a chance on that, either," he says.
Beshear has called lawmakers back to Frankfort to pass a transportation budget. The process could take up to two weeks.
Published April 16, 2012 By Gabe Bullard
Categorized as Local News, Politics Tagged Bridges, General Assembly
McConnell: Buffett Rule Won't Create Jobs or Lower Gas Prices
Former U of L Runner Wins Boston Marathon


A PCB, case, and components kit will be offered at diy-audio-kits.com, plus we offer to build and test the Genera phono preamp project for all those not blessed with DIY skills - watch out for updates here.
The "open-resource" Genera (generic) phono preamp project starts here.
And the icing on the cake is my secret ingredient all constructors will be able to fit (for a modest cost) that turbo-charges this thing into a "tube" phono preamp, without any of the short-lived ghastly glass beasties!
This is a totally new project, and I've not tried it out in advance, so here you will also get an insight into what really goes into a Graham Slee phono preamp project.
One thing we do have is the Gram Amp 2 Communicator phono preamp case printed with DAK (diy-audio-kits) logo and the name Genera. The constructor does not need it to build this project, but it will be offered along with a PCB to construct a neat phono preamp for those who want it.
Here are the pictures of the phono preamp case. The technical bit starts next post.
The Novo kit demonstrated that discrete circuitry could be very problematic to the inexperienced: too many things to get the wrong way round, and in the case of a transistor - the rest (or most of them) blow with it.
Therefore, for the Genera phono preamp it has to be an op-amp (operational amplifier chip), and just one at that!. But is that a dual op-amp, or a single?
In the Genera phono preamp it's going to be two singles, one per channel. The reason why will become apparent as the design progresses.
What performance can you expect? I'm looking for another winner here, so this is not going to be second-fiddle to a Gram Amp 2 phono preamp: I want it to do better or at least equal.
So how do I go about chosing an op-amp?
First we have to take a look at the RIAA reproduction curve.
The chart  above shows the output from a RIAA record according to a magnetic (moving magnet or moving coil) cartridge.
To end up with a flat frequency response, the phono preamp frequency response has to be the inverse - the chart upside down.
The above chart  shows the curve from the first chart, upside down - the black curve. It is part of the blue-grey curve which shows the extended frequency response we can expect.
This is the RIAA reproduction curve of our proposed phono preamp.
The red curve is the gain bandwidth product of an op-amp called the LF356, and below  is the same taken from the data sheet: the curve has the callout LF156, which is the family name covering the LF356.
The gain is inside the curve, that is to say to the left and below the curve. At approx. 5MHz the curve intersects 0dB on the x axis. Therefore the Gain Bandwidth Product is 5MHz. In actuality it is stated on the data sheet as 4.5MHz.
Where the gain is maximum at about 105dB - a gain of approx. 178,000, the bandwidth read from the graph is only about 30Hz. In fact, if we know the Gain Bandwidth Product is 4.5MHz then at 105dB gain the bandwidth is 4,500,000/178,000 = 25Hz, which correlates with our estimations off the graph.
To ensure an undistorted phono preamp using this op-amp, the phono preamp gain and bandwidth needs to be well within the op-amps curve - a rule of thumb being a factor of ten. For a 41dB gain (just over 100, and suitable for a moving magnet pick up) as shown in the second  graph, the rule of thumb exists frequency wise. In the direction of gain we have over 40dB spare, which more than covers the rule of thumb... 40dB being 100.
Can the gain of a phono preamp be increased?
My stock reply is NO.
But then it's challenged: "but other manufacturers do so"
We now only have a factor of 4 in the direction of frequency, where we wanted the rule-of-thumb ten. There is still sufficient gain at low frequencies however.
By getting too close to the op-amps Gain Bandwidth Product (GBW) curve we lose the accuracy of the reproduction curve - you may be able to see it is slightly different - and so the RIAA EQ component values need recalculating to give the required reproduction curve. Therefore a simple gain adjust or switch won't do! This is why so many universal phono preamps disappoint in one setting or another.
Another problem is that being so close to the op-amp GBW curve is that we lose some stability, which can be seen by the steeper high frequency end of the 60dB gain curve.
These are very important considerations when designing a proper high fidelity phono preamp.
Edit: To get the gain required for moving coil from a single op-amp, a type with a transconductance (non-degenerated bipolar transistor) input stage is required to get the gain up (and also for low noise). It also requires a large GBW product. There are precious few op-amps that can do this. Therefore, at a later stage I shall discuss and provide a neater solution for moving coil.
Here's the internals of the LF356.
What's striking is the virtual absence of PNP transistors!
As engineers who've used their ears with transistor amps will tell you: PNPs are cr*p!
Unfortunately many in Hi-Fi believe the opposite. Now, I know I don't have the writing skills of JLH - I don't have that convincing "it's like this because I say so". But the textbooks bear me out, and so does Analog Devices, although they use them in most of their op-amps, explaining that theirs are superior. However, I have always been left wanting - missing the sound I easily recall from my early days. Like I mentioned earlier: "I want this to be a winner".
By transconductance I mean bipolar transistors that don't use emitter resistors. Bipolars that use emitter resistors (as those in the voltage amp differential: R2 and R3) sound far better because they're very much more linear, but suffer noise because the emitter resistors degenerate gain, so there's less in the form of negative feedback, to reduce the noise.
The LF356 FETs are no different - the noise stacks up alongside an equivalent degenerated bipolar input stage. But, if it were bipolars it would have to be PNPs to complement the NPNs in the next stage. So FETs here were a good choice! It also makes the LF356 have extremely high input resistance (impedance when talking about signals).
I've used the very similar LF351 (LF353 dual) and the TLO71 (TLO72 dual, TLO74 quad) in phono stages, and they did sound really nice. The TLO71 variety was the only one to project Hendrix a good 4 foot behind the listening position (spooky), but in these days of noise specmanship... need I say more?
Eagle eyed op-amp historians will also notice the NE5534 output stage!!!
Transistor Q2 is an emitter follower driving Q14 which takes care of the negative going "push" and Q3 which takes care of the positive going "pull". Give Q14 some more current gain with an (erm) good PNP, and you have the same circuit as many a great old time high fidelity power amp! Designs such as that of Leak, as well as my 70's home built disco amp used such an output configuration, and progress has done little to better it.
Notice C2 in the voltage amp differential. I'll be talking about that next.
From previous post: "Notice C2 in the voltage amp differential. I'll be talking about that next."
Here (fig. A) we have the innards of the opamp represented by bipolar transistors, but you may be able to see the similarities (because they are there) between it and the innards of the LF356 shown last post.
Slew rate is one of those really hard to grasp properties in electronics. Here I will do my best to explain so you all understand it a bit better.
Capacitors store charge. To obtain the charge you'd place a capacitor across a voltage. That would cause a current to flow from the voltage source for a period of time required for the capacitor to adopt that charge - with me so far?
So we have five properties here: charge (Q) in coulombs; capacitance (C) in farads; voltage (V) in volts (of course); current (I) in amps; and time (T) in seconds.
Slew rate is volts per micro-second, and so we can use the V and the T like this: V/T (Voltage divided by Time), which represents volts per time (got it?).
12/0.000,001.T (which means 0.000,001 x T, which means micro-second), or put it all on the top line (by doing dv/dt), which is 12,000,000.
From the data sheet we know C = 10pf.
which suggests that the current called Ie in the above diagram is 120uA, or that the current flowing in the differential input stage of the LF356 is 120uA ???
Not having the "confidential" information from National Semiconductor to confirm this, I can only assume that it is the case from what the maths say.
But is 120uA is quite typical for this sort of J-fet input configuration? I would have thought it would be more, especially as the input noise voltage is pretty good, and that usually suggests more FET drain current than 120uA (60uA per device).
And if the current were higher, then the slew rate would be higher too. But it isn't.
The limiting factor here is input stage linearity. It's far better than that of a non-emitter degenerated bipolar transistor, but nothing electronic is perfect.
But a transconductance input stage results in a slew rate 0.3 x bandwidth, which for 5MHz would only be 1.5V/uS. The LF356 is stated as 12V/uS which can be taken to mean that it is 12/1.5 = 8 times better linearity.
Spent some time looking for my old copy of 'Art of...' sure I still had it, your not getting any replies yet but from the views there is a lot of interest so please keep up.


text:
Sync.com Accepts Bitcoin Via BitPay
Sync.com, an online service allowing users to access and synchronize their files on multiple devices, is now accepting bitcoin for
Leon Pick | News ( CryptoCurrency ) | Monday, 07/09/2015 | 15:14 GMT+1 2015-09-07 14:14:30
Sync.com, an online service allowing users to access and synchronize their files on multiple devices, is now accepting bitcoin for payment.
The Toronto-based startup is an alternative to services like Dropbox, competing on the grounds of enhanced privacy, backup and synchronization capabilities.
Privacy is taken very seriously, in line with one of Bitcoin's ideals. Similarly, Sync emphasizes the encryption of files, and values the notion of 'zero knowledge' systems- those which are occasionally evoked as the ideal forms of cryptocurrency- for information storage.
"Sync's unique, zero-knowledge storage platform guarantees your privacy by providing end-to-end encryption, and only you have access to the keys," says its site, making reference to another theme that it shares with Bitcoin- keys management.
In a press release, the company says that "Bitcoin compliments Sync's commitment to privacy by providing users with an encrypted payment option that does not require giving up personally identifiable information during signup."
CEO Thomas Savundra said that Bitcoin is "a win for customers, and a win for privacy in general."
The integration is being provided by BitPay.
The first 5 GB of storage are free. Packages of 500 GB and 2 TB are available for $49 and $98 per year respectively.
The service launched in July 2013 and currently claims over 100,000 users (Dropbox currently is said to have 400 million).
Tags: Bitcoin Accepted / Bitpay


text:
How AI and Neuroscience Are Driving Each Other
The living embodiment of co-evolution. JL
Shelly Fan reports in Singularity Hub:
Both disciplines are solving the same central problem—intelligence—but coming from different angles, and at different levels of abstraction. In AI, scientists look to crack efficient, effective learning mathematically using the language of machines. In neuroscience, we are trying to understand intelligence by looking at the sole existing proof that the problem is solvable.AI models are acting as virtual brains to guide hypotheses experiments. AI is also speeding up research in brain mapping projects, solving the problem with more accurate results. AI will likely provide solutions that neuroscientists can experimentally confirm.
DeepMind's Demis Hassabis once pointed to the human brain as a paramount inspiration for building AI with human-like intelligence. He's not the only one. The meteoric success of deep learning showcases how insights from neuroscience—memory, learning, decision-making, vision—can be distilled into algorithms that bestow silicon minds with a shadow of our cognitive prowess.
But what about the other way around?
This month, the prestigious journal Nature published an entire series highlighting the symbiotic growth between neuroscience and AI. It's been a long time coming. At their core, both disciplines are solving the same central problem—intelligence—but coming from different angles, and at different levels of abstraction. In AI, scientists look to crack the mysteries of efficient, effective learning mathematically using the language of machines. In neuroscience, we dissect the ins and outs of the three-pound fatty goop between our ears, trying to understand intelligence by looking at the sole existing proof that the problem is solvable. We're living proof that AI is possible.
To Dr. Chethan Pandarinath, a biomedical engineer at Georgia Tech in Atlanta who parses brain signals to control machine limbs, the neuro-AI connection is coming full circle.
AI is rapidly gaining ground as an invaluable tool in neuroscience in two main ways. One is technical. Thanks to its ability to churn through extravagant amounts of data to find patterns, AI is increasingly adopted into methods that manage and make sense of brain activity.
The second is perhaps more exciting: as algorithms increasingly evolve brain-like outputs, they become hotbeds to test fundamental, overarching ideas in neuroscience. In some cases, AI abstracts high-level concepts of what we think our brains do, even if how algorithms go about their computation is vastly different from us.
We've previously talked a ton about how neuroscience inspires AI. Here are three ways AI is giving back.
1. Wrangling Data
Although mathematical equations are baked into the very beginning of neuroscience, the experimental arm of the field has always relied on observing biological players—receptors, neurotransmitters, signaling molecules—to solve the brain's mysteries.
Then came the big data era.
Rather than studying individual proteins and brain regions, suddenly neuroscientists had the tools to profile single neurons at their genetic level, or digitally reconstruct massive portions of neural connections. In biochemistry, for example, there's the rise of "omics," the brain-wide study of a certain level of biology—genomics, epigenomics, metabolomics, stuff-we'll-soon-profile-omics. For mapping neural connections, detailing how neurons connect physically is rapidly becoming old-school; the trick now is to further correlate brain atlases to other functional maps such as brain-wide gene expression over increasingly longer timescales. Trying to parse neural signaling—and linking particular activation patterns to sensations, movement, or even specific memories—is occurring at a scale of hundreds of neurons, if not more.
Take brain implants to control robotic arms. Pandarinath, for example, constantly deals with trying to make sense of signals measured from 200 or so neurons in a pool of 10 to 100 million that control arm movements. Here's where AI comes in: algorithms can help identify underlying structures in the data—even when buried under noise—to extract electrical fingerprints that correlate to specific, minute behaviors. The computer can also figure out how these activation patterns change over time, generating a fine-grained instruction manual for controlling an arm.
Similarly, AI is also massively speeding up research in brain mapping projects or functional brain imaging, which easily deals with terabytes of image files that need to be processed, reconstructed, and annotated. Computer vision is even helping analyze smaller-scale but high-volume images that examine neural death or protein levels. Rather than spending ridiculous man-hours on mindless work, researchers can focus on what's important—solving the problem—with more accurate results.
As of now, most datasets in neuroscience are in non-standard, proprietary forms buried in local hard drives. As projects like Neurodata Without Borders (NWB), initiated in part by brain-machine interface pioneer Dr. Loren Frank at UCSF, gain steam to standardize data architecture, more data will be uploaded to the cloud with labels that are amenable to machine learning. Translation? There's going to be a lot more AI-generated brain insights.
2. Solving Senses and Movement
Modern deep learning has its roots in studies examining vision pathways way back in the 1960s. So it's no surprise that neuroscientists are now using AI to re-examine ideas on how our brains process senses and movements.
A Harvard team led by Dr. Margaret Livingstone, for example, fashioned a biologically-based algorithm, XDREAM, to understand the "visual alphabet" of a type of mysterious visual cells. The algorithm eventually cooked up a slew of images that mashed together faces with gratings and abstract shapes into a previously unknown cellular language, providing researchers with a solid idea to further test. Another recent study using convolutional neural networks found that contrary to popular belief, the human visual system naturally embeds information about emotion.
These studies aren't just theoretical. Understanding how our brains process senses and movement is crucial in making more life-like, mind-controlled prosthetics. Similar to Livingstone, Dr. Daniel Yamins at Stanford University also tackled vision, but with the goal of understanding neural network activity underlying object recognition. He built and trained a deep neural net according to our current understanding of the visual system's architecture, and found that the network's neural activity matched biological ones recorded from monkeys as they performed a similar object discrimination task. A few years later, he did the same for the auditory cortex.
Algorithms that mimic vision or hearing can spur ideas on how the brain solves these tasks. "If you can train a neural network to do it," said Dr. David Sussillo, a computational neuroscientist at Google Brain, "then perhaps you can understand how that network functions, and then use that to understand the biological data."
In other words, AI models are acting as virtual brains to guide hypotheses and experiments. Rather than testing hypotheses immediately on animals, AI models can act as a middle stand-in that captures a basic representation of brain activity. These brain simulations allow "dry-runs" to perturb neural activity and observe what happens, without sticking electrodes into people. The idea—though still nascent—is gaining steam and already being commercially pursued.
The results form a bridge towards linking smart prosthetics with the brain: mind-controlled robotic limbs or exoskeletons, visual or hearing prosthetics that bypass the eyes and ears to directly activate relevant brain regions. Just last week UCSF, with funding from Facebook, unveiled a system that can accurately decode speech by reading brain waves.
3. Cracking Neural Codes
Although much more complicated, the same strategy for solving senses and movement can also help crack more abstract brain functions. For example, mimicking the neural circuits underlying memory in computer chips could potentially off-load memories or other higher cognitive processes onto "memory patches" to be delivered back in old age or after brain damage. DARPA has these experiments underway. Other experimental brain prostheses include smart implants that measure neural activity for signs of impending epilepsy or depression to deliver a well-timed zap to counteract these episodes before onset.
In both cases, AI is helping neuroscientists crack the so-called neural code—the activation patterns of individual groups of neurons that underlie a thought or behavior. Brain implants have been around for decades, but the latest infusion of AI is making their internal processes, such as identifying electrical spikes of activity, far more effective.
Finally, one more slightly controversial approach looks to mathematical ideas that drive human-like performance in AI and ask if they're also present in our brains. Cognitive scientists have long wondered if Bayesian inference, a mathematical way to incorporate evidence into existing ideas, also influences how we perceive the world or make decisions. The observation that AI inspired by the theorem can sometimes mimic human cognition is rekindling that debate.
Of course, just because AI output resembles the brain doesn't mean that's how the brain works. Unlike machine intelligence, our brains are the result of evolutionary pressure. It's likely that aspects of how we efficiently learn are intimately linked to survival instincts, something that AI models might not be able to capture.
Rather than delivering immediate answers to the brain's mysteries, AI will more likely provide one or more solutions that neuroscientists can experimentally confirm. Regardless, their impact is already fundamentally changing the neuroscience ecosphere and will only continue to grow.
"I want to be part of that," said Sussillo.


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