All posts by johncohn

Wednesday night – what is Watson ?

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I just finished watching the third day of the Watson Jeopardy challenge..The Watson computer handily defeated the two best human champions.   What an amazing experiment..  We don’t have TV hooked up here, so I had to wait till now to see the shows recorded by someone else. I ‘watched’ the three day match real time in Twitter. which was very interesting.. By and large, the reaction was very positive.. .The funny thing is.. many folks grew up on Hollywood’s version of computers . The idea of a ‘HAL’ or a star trek computer is so imprinted on us that many folks don’t get that computers have a hard time understanding written language very well.. and  just don’t ‘know’ things the way we do. Quite a few people have reacted to the Watson Jeopardy challenge in that way.. saying.. ‘of course it will win it’s a computer’.. Others were joking that this is the beginning of the end.. (many references to the Terminator’s ‘skynet’) .. ..

Most just see it for what it is.. ..  an amazing breakthrough..

I am so proud of my friends and colleagues across the company that made this happen. My own contribution was pretty indirect.. i worked on the Power processor chips used in Watson;s  ‘brain’. .. Folks from all over the company helped… in designing the hardware. software I’m particularly impressed and proud of the guys in Research,( Dave F and co. ) who drove the project and developed the deep Q & A algorithms that Watson uses to decode the clues and codify all that information. It is fun to imagine what they are thinking tonight.. !

. I’ve watched the project mature for about 2 years.. I remember seeing some of the first scoring results about 18 months ago that showed how  the machine stacked up against average jeopardy players.. The machine staked up pretty well, but it was well beneath the historical record of games played by some of the all time champs like Jennings and Rutter  .. I  remember wondering if it would ever meet the goal… Then I saw some data a few months back that showed it winning over these guys.. and I just couldn’t believe it.

I’m a huge Jeopardy fan..and a huge fan of computing.. I know how hard a task it is to decode the cryptic clues and codify all that knowledge used to frame the answers… i mean questions.   en imagine the ways that this type of deep computing is going to change the world.  in ways we can’t even imagine…

Really an amazing experiment… What is Watson …?

We’re so proud of you !

night folks, nite sam

-me

Tuesday night – seven fifty eight

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I had a special treat tonight.. I got to kick off the science fair at Richmond Elementary School.. All three boys went there.. and its the place I got my start as a mad scientist performer.. I remember doing a science show for max’s kindergarten class in 1993.. .From then on, I did several shows a year for each of Max, Sam and Gabes classes.. and eventually for all the teachers in that school.. then the district, then the region.. then..the state.. the the northeast.. It all started here for me and it felt very good to be walkign around in there again. The science fair was wonderful.. there were about 50 kids showing there smart stuff.. there were projects on hydroponics, on magnetism, on electricity, on languages of cats even .

I really liked one kids project on fulgarites.. fulgarites are pieces of melted sand cased usually by lightening.. these were caused by a downed high voltage line in the wind storms last fall.. how cool is that ?

Around 6L30 everyone filed into the cafeteria and my show began. I was so surprised to see as many of my freinds there with young kids.. here’s Sara my work buddy with her daughter Dahlia (hey.. where’s dahlia ? )

it wasa nice size crowd, lots of familiar face.. I only had 30 min, so I gave an abbreviated version of my show.. I think  it went pretty well..

Even my buddy Erin was in the roo.. still not completely sure how she ended up there..

I loved being back in the school.. I left a sam stone in the library .. i remember reading all three kids books in there.

I had lots of helpers as I reloaded the car.. As I got in.. I guessed that it was 7:58 PM.. I turned on the car..and was surprised to see that I had guessed exactly right.. then I realized, I was looking at the trip odometer.. how funny I thought..

Then I looked at the clock..!

The world has wierd ways of tellign you things.. what did it just say to me ?

nite all, nite sam

-me

Monday night – valentines day

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Happy Valentines day folks.. I know, i know.. it’s more about Hallmark cards  than about true emotion..  .. but ..it’s a good time to think about love in our lives. Diane gave a great yoga class this evening centered around love.. lots of good music, lots of heart opening exercises.. During the initial meditation , Diane asked us to reflect on all the different kinds of love in our lives:

love of a child.. –  you don’t really get to choose this one

Love of a mate – here you do get to choose

Love of parents – comes very naturally

Love of siblings

Love of a pet

Love of self.. – this one isn’t always so easy.. the Buddhists call this Maitre.

Love of life

New love

Old love

Love of a favorite soldering iron (oh yes.. it’s true)

Love of being outdoors,

Love of heart shaped vegetarian meatballs and cake on heart shaped cakes like we had for dinner

I’m greatful to be surrounded by love.. hope you are as well..

nite folks, nite sam.. we are sending you love tonight..

-me

ps. Here’s a great picture that friend Hanna took at tim and jen’s shortly after Sam died…. The wind shook the camera in just the right way.  this is for you , Sam !

pss. Brother billy was on the front page of the Houston Chronicle this morning with his latest invention.. A minimally invasive way to tie off the atrieal appendage . A perfect tribute for valentines day.

Sunday night – catch up

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A little catch-up on pictures I couldn’t post earlier this week… due to internet issues at home.

Gabe, Austin. Jack and Will are all freshman at MMU. This year they competed in the Winter Carnival Grand Prix. The idea is to build a human powered car and race through the halls of the high school  banging into things. We got together a couple of times this week up at David’s and used his shop. The kids designed  and built the car themselves. .. It was a cool design, 4 casters mounted on a wooden frame with a sloping handle with a crosspiece. for pushing.. They painted the whole thing the freshmen class color.. salmon .. (salmon?!?!).

Race day was last friday.. they did pretty. well.. but didn’t place.. but they definitely had the coolest video

While their car was speeding through MMU. ours was taking Diane and me to Boston to see my folks..somewhere near Barre, our little toyota turned 160,000 miles.. We tosted her with seltzer. All those trips to NY are adding up..!   She’s been a good car..


As I said last night.. our trip to see my folks was really nice.. they’re doing well…We started with a great sushi dinner  at a place near them.. lots of saki !

We spent most of the time looking at old pictures

Here’s a picture of my grandmother  Madeline, (lower left) .. her sister  Gladys, lower right .. and her aunts . Keenie, frady. gussy and someone else. . behind. ..

Some of the same family with my sister Mary// ,ust be in the 70’s

My cousins harry. my dad and my cousin Sam with sporting the familiar Cohn/Patz hairstyle and physique.

A bunch of my dad’s marathon numbers

Smumming on the couch

Breakfast.. dad looking chipper !

A GREAT picture of Sam that my mom found …. I love this picture !

A bunch of old navy pics from my dad.. here he is pointing to himself on the rocket launcehr ship he was on

Dad as a young Ad man in NY or Houston

Dad as a baby (?!?!)

An ad he did on Bowling using my brother and sister .. must have been the early 70’s based on hairstyles..

my dad’s high school gradulation in Elberton Ga.. myust be 1947

His college diploma form NYU

Dad’s first enlistment class in the Navy (he was 17)

A memory of one of his nay missions..

His fire control  school graduation

My dad’s first business.. teaching swimming

Pictures from us leaving (posted these yesterday)

THe weeks paper at a gas station on the way home.. so much difference a day can make (Go Egypt !!!)

And.. a quick hello to Sam on a cross country ski Diane and I got in jus tbefore dark when we got home

Today has been pretty quiet.. Diane and I got the dogs out for a really nice snowshoe.// there’s just SO MUCH SNOW !!!

I’ve been working in the shop all day on the tesla project.. good project.. but I’m frustrated witt the last couple of steps.. Hope to finish it up this week.

that’s about it.. going to be a busy week…

nite all, nite Sam

-me