A genetic algorithm learns to draw a hummingbird:

The video is an animation of three thousand generations of evolution. It starts with a random mix of line segments which are then mutated by adding or removing lines and by changing the start, end and color of existing lines. Each generation has 32 individuals. The best individual is mutated to create the next generation.

For this implementation the best or fittest individual is the one with the least error on a pixel by pixel comparison to a stock art drawing of a hummingbird. Because I care more about the shape than completely filling in the drawing an error outside the figure is penalized three times more than a gap inside the figure.

Color is mutated each generation but not selected for, so it's just changing randomly.

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For the service of telling UPS that I'm not in today and so they can save a whole bunch of time and money by not failing to deliver a package they want to charge me $5? This is UPS My Choice.

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Not only does it know when you're home but the Nest Learning Thermostat also knows when you're nearby. Here's how it works.

You crank up the heat to 70 and walk away. Nest then immediately returns to 62 degrees.

Thinking there must be something screwy with the algorithm you turn it back up to 70. Nest knows that it's in trouble so it displays a comforting message like 'Heat set until 10pm', waits for you to leave and then sets the temperature back to 62 degrees.

Giving up on the learning part you use the app to manually program it to keep the heat on. Nest now uses its WiFi connection to phone the gas company and disconnect your service.

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The ITHCWY privacy policy has been updated to reflect changes in the blog comment system. Previously email addresses submitted with comments were only used to display a Gravatar. Starting today they will also be used for notifications and newsletter signup.

The first notification is when a comment is approved. You'll always be notified in this case if you enter an email address.

When you leave a comment you can opt in to receiving notifications when another comment is added to the same post.

Finally, you can also subscribe to the monthly newsletter when leaving a comment.

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Four Painted Lady butterflies eclose (emerge) from their chrysalises. The video has a timelapse and then realtime video of each butterfly in turn.

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Thanks to revoice.me you can now subscribe to I Thought He Came With You on Facebook Messenger, Telegram, Slack and/or Chrome Notifications. To sign up visit ITHCWY on revoice.me.

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If I need to reboot to view a PDF then you must be doing something very badly wrong Adobe.

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I have a Nest camera in my backyard. So far it has caught zero criminals. It's not completely useless though as it has captured many raccoons, several skunks, eerie spiders glowing in the infrared lights, a couple of rats and one cat. Parkside police say I can stop calling now.

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A datalapse video of San Francisco street trees:

City elevation contours and street tree database  from DataSF. I included all trees with a latitude, longitude and known planting date. On the visualization trees grow over 25 years to a generally exaggerated 25 meters radius. Each species of tree is assigned a random color.

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I'm switching hosts so there will be various DNS changes and some downtime today.

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