Linked List: February 29, 2020

Saturday, 29 February 2020

My thanks to Scanii for sponsoring this week at DF. Scanii is a content identification API service. Put simply, you send Scanii your user-generated content and they’ll tell you if it’s safe (and what is actually in it). From malware to inappropriate content (both images and language), Scanii can help you focus on your product with the peace of mind that your users and your brand are protected.

With points of presence across the globe, Scanii can deliver great performance while ensuring regulatory compliance. Integration is simple — they offer SDK clients in multiple languages and have great documentation.

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Freeman Dyson, Math Genius Turned Visionary Technologist, Dies at 96 ★

George Johnson, writing for The New York Times:

“Life begins at 55, the age at which I published my first book,” he wrote in From Eros to Gaia, one of the collections of his writings that appeared while he was a professor of physics at the Institute for Advanced Study — an august position for someone who finished school without a Ph.D. The lack of a doctorate was a badge of honor, he said. With his slew of honorary degrees and a fellowship in the Royal Society, people called him Dr. Dyson anyway.

What a mind, what a life:

Richard Feynman, a young professor at Cornell, had invented a novel method to describe the behavior of electrons and photons (and their antimatter equivalent, positrons). But two other physicists, Julian Schwinger and Sin-Itiro Tomonaga, had each independently devised a very different way. Each of these seemed to satisfy the requirements of both quantum mechanics and special relativity — two of nature’s acid tests. But which one was correct?

While crossing Nebraska on a Greyhound bus, Dr. Dyson was struck by an epiphany: The theories were mathematically equivalent — different ways of saying the same thing. The result was QED. Feynman called it “the jewel of physics — our proudest possession.”

The Talk Show: ‘Dot Net Party’ ★

For your Leap Day listening enjoyment, first-time guest Federico Viticci joins the show. Topics include how the coronavirus outbreak might affect WWDC, speculation on a possible March Apple event, the state of iPad keyboard (and trackpad) support, and iPadOS multitasking.